Opinion ID: 1096587
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: whether stack's due process rights were violated when the state indicted stack nine months after the crime.

Text: ¶ 29. Stack next contends that his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process was violated when nine months passed between the date of the crime and the indictment. In essence, Stack alleges that counsel would have been able to have a mental examination to aid in the defense. In response, the State contends that Stack is procedurally barred from raising this issue on appeal since he failed to raise it at the trial court level, relying on Jones v. State, 606 So.2d 1051, 1058 (Miss.1992). In Jones, the defendant was prohibited from asserting a hearsay objection to the admissibility of testimony on appeal because the objection at trial was based upon failure to provide statutory notice of the proposed testimony. We held: A trial judge will not be found in error on a matter not presented to him for decision. Id. at 1058 (citing Crenshaw v. State, 520 So.2d 131, 134 (Miss.1988); Ponder v. State, 335 So.2d 885, 886 (Miss.1976); Howard v. State, 507 So.2d 58, 63 (Miss. 1987)). In the case sub judice, this issue was never raised in the trial court and is, thus, barred. ¶ 30. Notwithstanding this procedural bar, this issue is without merit. We have held that the failure to indict for murder for a period of twenty-one years did not violate due process: We have stated in a pre-indictment analysis of due process violations that the burden of persuasion is on the defendant. Hooker v. State, 516 So.2d 1349, 1351, (Miss.1987), citing United States v. Hendricks, 661 F.2d 38, 40 (5th Cir. 1981). In order to prevail under Hooker, Beckwith must show that 1) the preindictment delay caused actual prejudice to him, and 2) such delay was an intentional device used by the government to obtain a tactical advantage over the accused. De La Beckwith v. State, 707 So.2d 547, 569 (¶ 77) (Miss.1997). Not only has Stack failed to show that the delay caused any actual prejudice, Stack also failed to show any tactical advantage gained by the State due to the delay. Thus, this issue is without merit.