Title: Willis v. State
Citation: 475 So. 2d 163
Docket Number: 55665
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: September 4, 1985

475 So. 2d 163 (1985) Donald Wayne WILLIS v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 55665. Supreme Court of Mississippi. September 4, 1985. Fred L. Cooper, Columbia, for appellant. Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Charles W. Maris, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. Before PATTERSON, C.J., and DAN M. LEE and ANDERSON, JJ. PATTERSON, Chief Justice, for the Court: Donald Wayne Willis was convicted in the Circuit Court of Marion County of murder under Mississippi Code Annotated, § 97-3-19(1)(a), (1972), as amended. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The appeal raises no issues not heretofore decided by this Court; therefore, it is our opinion no need would be served by restating our well established rules of law. Under the authority of Morea v. State, 329 So. 2d 527 (Miss. 1976), the conviction and sentence are affirmed. See Jordan v. State, 474 So. 2d 622, (1985). Because of the great backlog of cases in this Court with accompanying delay between the judgment in the trial court and final disposition in this Court, we think the following prophetic opinion by a former Chief Justice of this Court appropriate to be repeated. In Morea v. State, we stated in part: AFFIRMED. WALKER and ROY NOBLE LEE, P.JJ., and HAWKINS, DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ANDERSON, JJ., concur. [1] Since this statement in 1976, appeals and opinions have greatly increased.