Opinion ID: 865614
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: ¶57. When reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, “the critical inquiry is whether the evidence shows ‘beyond a reasonable doubt that accused committed the act charged, and that he did so under such circumstances that every element of the offense existed; and where the evidence fails to meet this test it is insufficient to support a conviction.’” Bush v. State, 895 So. 2d 836, 843 (quoting Carr v. State, 208 So. 2d 886, 889 (Miss. 1968)). However, this does not require the Court to “ask itself whether it believes that the evidence at the trial established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Instead, the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 315, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed. 2d 560 (1979) (citations omitted) (emphasis in original)). If “the facts and inferences . . . ‘point in favor of 31 the defendant on any element of the offense with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty,’ the proper remedy is for the appellate court to reverse and render.” Id. (quoting Edwards v. State, 469 So. 2d 68, 70 (Miss. 1985)). But if the evidence is sufficient to show that reasonable and fair-minded persons, in the exercise of impartial deliberations, might have reached a different conclusion on every element of the offense, while considering the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard, “the evidence will be deemed to have been sufficient.” Id. ¶58. In order to find Neal guilty of murder, the jury had to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Neal had killed Cleveland without the authority of law and with deliberate design to effect her death. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence was sufficient to enable a rational jury to find each of these elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Neal gave two confessions to the police in which he admitted that he had killed Cleveland, in one confession stating that he had decapitated Cleveland, and in another stating that he had shot her twice in the head and then he had decapitated her. He further admitted that after killing Cleveland, he had taken steps in an effort to conceal his identity as the killer, such as bleaching Cleveland’s body, sending misleading text messages, and disposing of Cleveland’s head, the gun, and the knife. Neal’s confession to being the killer was corroborated by the discovery of blood on his shorts and by Neal’s uncharacteristic tardiness at work on the afternoon of the murder. There also was evidence that Neal acted with deliberate design; Neal confessed that he had killed Cleveland due to his mounting suspicion of her infidelity. 32