Case Name: Bart H. MEASE v. STATE of Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1991-07-24
Citations: 583 So. 2d 1283
Docket Number: No. 90-CA-0782
Parties: Bart H. MEASE v. STATE of Mississippi.
Judges: Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PITTMAN and BANKS, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 583
Pages: 1283–1285

Head Matter:
Bart H. MEASE v. STATE of Mississippi.
No. 90-CA-0782.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
July 24, 1991.
David G. Hill, Maurie L. White, Oxford, for appellant.
Mike C. Moore, Atty. Gen., Charlene R. Pierce, Sp. Ass’t Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.
Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PITTMAN and BANKS, JJ.

Opinion:
ROY NOBLE LEE, Chief Justice,
for the Court:
Marshall Helgrin Mease (Bart H. Mease) was indicted on May 12, 1986, for the capital murder of Sheriff Osborne Bell, Marshall County, Mississippi. Mease, being indigent, was appointed an attorney to conduct his defense. On April 20, 1989, Mease filed a motion with the Marshall County Circuit Court for attorney's fees in excess of the statutory limit prescribed by Mississippi Code Annotated Section 99-15-17 (Supp.1990), which motion was denied on November 2, 1989. Mease has appealed to this Court and raises substantially the issues that were presented to, and decided by, this Court in Wilson v. State, 574 So.2d 1338 (Miss.1990) and in Pruett v. State, 574 So.2d 1342 (Miss.1990).
A brief statement of facts follow.
I.
Venue of this case was transferred to Winston County upon motion. In April of 1987, Mease was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Thereafter, Mease appealed the judgment and sentence to this Court which, on February 1, 1989, vacated Mease's conviction and remanded the cause to the Marshall County Circuit Court for a new trial. See Mease v. State, 539 So.2d 1324 (Miss.1989). Mease was retried for the capital murder of Sheriff Bell and ultimately was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mease's counsel made an initial motion for attorney's fees in excess of the statutory maximum at the conclusion of Mease's first trial. Upon appeal ⅛ this Court, Mease included as an issue the attorney's fees question. This Court, while vacating Mease's conviction and ordering a new trial, did not address the compensation issue. See Mease, supra. Mease again moved for attorney's fees in excess of the statutory maximum prior to his second trial which motion was renewed at the conclusion of the second trial.
Mease's motion was heard before the Marshall County Circuit Court on October 16, 1989. That Court overruled Mease's motion and held that it did not have the authority to award attorney fees in excess of the amounts provided by § 99-15-17. The Marshall County Circuit Court, while denying Mease's motion for attorney's fees in excess of the statutory maximum, found that Mease's attorney and his salaried associate attorneys expended: eight hundred and fifty (850) hours of time in representing Mease in his first trial; one hundred and twenty five (125) hours of time representing Mease on appeal to this Court; nine hundred seventy three and seventy seven tenths (973.77) hours in representing Mease in his second and final trial; and that the aforementioned expenditure of time was reasonable, and obvious from the record, based on the quality and extent of defense counsel's efforts on Mease's behalf.
II.
In Wilson and Pruett, supra, this Court held that § 99-15-17, was not unconstitutional. The case at bar is controlled by Wilson and Pruett and judgment of the lower court is reversed and the case remanded for a hearing on the appropriate amount of expenses in both trials, consistent with those opinions.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, PITTMAN, BANKS and McRAE, JJ., concur.
PRATHER, J., specially concurring joined by HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and PITTMAN, BANKS and McRAE, JJ.