Opinion ID: 1142502
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility of the Sentencing Order

Text: At the penalty phase, the State introduced the Sentencing Order from appellant's June 10, 1988, grand larceny conviction to establish that Billy Jenkins was under a sentence of imprisonment when he murdered Dawn Jones. The Sentencing Order established that: (1) Billy Jenkins pled guilty to a charge of grand larceny and was sentenced to a term of five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections; (2) Billy Jenkins' sentence was suspended so long as certain conditions of good behavior were met by appellant; and (3) Billy Jenkins was ordered to pay fines and restitution of more than $3,100.00 within a six month period. After the Sentencing Order was admitted below, defense counsel moved to exclude the provisions of the Sentencing Order that pertained to the appellant's suspended sentence as well as the fines and restitution to be paid by Billy Jenkins. The lower court reviewed the complaints of counsel and determined that the provisions of the order regarding the fines to be paid by Jenkins should be stricken from the document. The court did not, however, exclude the provisions of the order addressing the conditions of appellant's suspended sentence. This ruling, according to Billy Jenkins, constitutes reversible error on appeal because the conditions of his suspended sentence were irrelevant and prejudicial at trial. Upon a review of the proceedings below, however, we must disagree. The admission of the June 10, 1988 Sentencing Order was an efficient way to prove that Billy Jenkins was under a sentence of imprisonment at the time of the offense. The inclusion of the conditions of appellant's suspended sentence was a matter within the discretion of the trial court under Rule 403 of the Mississippi Rules of Evidence. That Rule provides that [a]lthough relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. Although we might disagree with the trial judge concerning the probative value of the conditions of appellant's suspended sentence, in today's case, the ruling of the lower court was not reversible error. Therefore, we find that this assignment of error is without merit.