Opinion ID: 1804803
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Is a separate trial a matter of right where two or more persons are jointly indicted for a felony ?

Text: Mississippi Code Annotated section 99-15-47 (1972) states as follows:  Any of several persons jointly indicted for a felony may be tried separately on making application therefor before the order for a special venire in capital cases and before arraignment in other cases. On March 21, 1975, Rule 29 of the Uniform Rules for Circuit Courts of Mississippi was adopted in the following language: The trial judge will have the discretion of granting or refusing a severance in all criminal cases where the death penalty is not involved. The appellants rely on Greer v. State, 54 Miss. 378 (1877). In Greer the Court recognized that at common law the right to a separate trial was discretionary with the court, but held that what the common law regarded as a privilege, to be granted or not at the pleasure of the court, is by this positive enactment converted into a right which the court cannot refuse. 54 Miss. at 380. The statute interpreted by the Court in Greer read as follows: When two or more persons are joined in one indictment ... the court shall on application grant a severance, and permit them to be tried separately. Id. (Emphasis appearing in opinion.) However, since 1880 and at present the statute provides the defendants may be tried separately. In several cases since the statute was changed to its present form, the Court has used language indicating that severance is a matter of right if seasonable application is made. Thompson v. State, 231 Miss. 624, 97 So.2d 227 (1957); Dueitt v. State, 225 Miss. 254, 83 So.2d 91 (1955); Bolin et al. v. State, 209 Miss. 866, 48 So.2d 581 (1950); Malone v. State, 77 Miss. 812, 26 So. 968 (1900). However, in each of those cases the Court did not have squarely before it the question whether a separate trial was a matter of right; therefore, the statements in these cases were obiter dictum. We hold that the word may in section 99-15-47 should be given its ordinary meaning, and whether a severance should be granted is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge.