How often are circuit judges' decisions overturned?

• See breakdown of judges' statistics from across the state at end of story.
• See breakdown of Judge Weill's reversals at end of story.
• See link to searchable database in story.

Reversal rates of over 20 percent for circuit judges are considered high and a red flag, New York law professor Laurie Shanks says.

Two Hinds County judges fall into that category, according to a Clarion-Ledger research project into how often in the past two years each of the state’s 57 circuit judges has had decisions reversed on appeal.

The judge with the most appeals was Hinds County's Jeff Weill. Eight of his 38 cases or rulings on motions have been reversed on appeal, a rate of over 21 percent. In addition, one of his cases was affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Although she had far fewer cases on appeal, Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green had a 36 percent reversal rate with 11 cases appealed, four of which were reversed and one affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Green said judges should not take it personally if one of their cases is reversed on appeal. She said the ultimate goal is to get it right. She said some cases or rulings need review.

"We have hundreds of cases and hundreds of motions that may or may not get appealed," Green said.

Green said in trial it can take two seconds to overrule a motion, but the Court of Appeals or Mississippi Supreme Court could have a case for two years and then make a ruling to send it back to a lower court.

She said appeals can make a case go longer than judges would like.

"You can lose a witness in that time; it can be a nightmare," Green said.

Green said a judge's error can occur because law, as the judge knew it, may have been changed through a state Supreme Court ruling or by the Legislature.

The Clarion-Ledger reached out to Weill for comment, but he did not respond.

"It's a sad judge who would take it personally," Green said of cases being reversed on appeal. "We have a system if we get it wrong, we have an appellate court to get it right."

Reasons for reversals

A case can only be appealed to a higher court based upon violation of law, said Shanks, a national expert on trial courts. And harmless error won't get a case overturned. There is a high threshold for overturning a case on appeal, she said.

The courts cited human error by judges such as not allowing cross examination by the defense of a witness, not separating for trial rape charges from separate simple assault charges, violation of due process rights and just making the wrong ruling.

With assistance from Mississippi College School of Law judicial data project, The Clarion-Ledger looked at how often circuit judges in the state were overturned or reversed by higher courts from rulings made by circuit judges from Jan. 1. 2013, to Dec. 31, 2015, but some of the opinions made by the Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court were filed during 2016. Some judges had no cases appealed, and some had no cases reversed.

The judge with the second highest number of cases appealed over the last two-year period is Madison County Circuit Judge William Chapman with 36 cases appealed; three of which were reversed.

If a case is reversed, it could mean a new trial and all the expenses that go with it.

In one highly publicized case, the state Supreme Court reversed Curtis Giovanni Flower's capital murder conviction three times. Flowers is accused of the 1996 killing of Winona furniture store owner Bertha Tardy and three of her employees.Two of his trials ended in mistrials.

Flowers' last — and sixth — trial was in 2010 in Montgomery County, when he was again convicted and sentenced to death.

Montgomery County had to raise taxes to cover retrial costs.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the Mississippi high court's 2014 decision affirming Flowers' conviction and death sentence and told the court to look again at Flowers' claim that African-American jurors were excluded from his last trial in 2010 for racial reasons.

Judging the judges

Mississippi has 22 Circuit Court districts and 57 Circuit Court judges. The number of circuit judges per district ranges from one to four. They are selected in nonpartisan elections to four-year terms.

Mississippi's circuit judges preside over felony criminal cases and civil cases. They also hear appeals from county, justice and municipal courts and from administrative boards and commissions such as the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Paid $136,000 a year, once in office these judges are rarely defeated in reelection bids, often facing no opposition.

Steve Rozman, a political science professor at Tougaloo College, said judges are typically re-elected because they do not run with political party labels that might make them vulnerable to the fortunes of  such parties.

Also, voters do not take the trouble to check on records of judicial decisions, Rozman said.

“A concerned voter would check to determine how often a judge’s decisions are overturned on appeal, since frequent reversals of judicial decisions by appellate courts may indicate decisions that are not well grounded in the law,” Rozman said.

Still, unless a person is part of the criminal justice system, it's generally difficult to get a sense of whether a judge is making appropriate rulings, Shanks said.

No group routinely rates trial court judges based upon their work or how often their rulings are overturned or reversed on appeal.

Appeals are the domain of the Mississippi Supreme Court, which can assign cases to the Court of Appeals, an intermediary court. The supreme court can overrule a Court of Appeals decision.

Trials are heard with a 12-member jury and usually one or two alternate jurors. But a judge may preside without a jury if the dispute is a question of law rather than fact.

Ronald Rychlack, a University of Mississippi School of Law professor, said when a judge is overturned at a very high rate, it might indicate he or she is trying to make law rather than apply it, and that is not the judicial role.

“On the other hand, a judge needs to do justice and should not be overly worried about being second-guessed on appeal,” Rychlak said. “I think most lawyers would take an honest, hard-working judge over one who is overly cautious due to worries over being reversed.”

Judge Prentiss Harrell of Purvis, chairman of the Conference of Circuit Judges, who had one case reversed in the last two years, said generally when he reads an appellate court decision in one of his cases, he can say they got it right.

"Naturally my pride gets injured" when one of his cases is overturned, he said. And sometimes he and the Mississippi Court of Appeals see things differently, but he says he doesn't complain.

"That's the system. The men and women of the Court of Appeals are people of integrity and they're not going to do anything capricious or on a whim," Harrell said. "We do see thing differently at times and we have diverse opinions, and there is room for error. However, I don't complain. I may disagree with them."

RELATED: Mississippi Supreme Court vacates Weill's order

Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.

Search Mississippi's Circuit Court judges' record of reversals (mobile users click here)

Weill's eight cases reversed:

Reed v. State

Luke Reed was convicted of aggravated assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to serve 20 years. Reed filed an appeal saying his right to a speedy trial was violated and he should have been allowed to try to impeach a witness against him.

The Court of Appeals opinion issued May 10 said Reed’s right to a speedy trial was not violated; however, Reed was entitled to cross-examine the witness regarding his prior convictions, and it was a reversible error to prohibit him from doing so. The court reversed Reed’s convictions and remanded the case for a new trial.

Lomax v. State

Dequane Lomax, AKA Dequan Lomax, was convicted of forcible rape.

Lomax was indicted by a Hinds County grand jury on two counts of forcible rape and two counts of simple assault on a law enforcement officer. The Hinds County Circuit Court severed one count of forcible rape from the other charges and proceeded to trial in March 2014 on the second rape count and two counts of simple assault. Lomax was convicted on the rape charge and acquitted of simple assault.

The state Supreme Court found in June that cumulative error occurred at trial that deprived Lomax of the right to a fair trial. The court said the simple assault counts should have been separated from the rape count. The court reversed the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial.

Whittaker v. State

Tremaine Whittaker filed a post-conviction appeal. Weill dismissed Whittaker’s motion. The Court of Appeals reversed Weill’s decision and sent the case back to him.

A jury convicted Whittaker of statutory rape, sexual battery and gratification of lust in September 2012. He was sentenced to two terms of 30 years and one term of 15 years, all to be served concurrently.

Whittaker was represented at trial and sentencing by attorney Andy Sumrall, who had been hired by Whittaker’s retained attorney, Michael Marks. Whittaker was not informed by the trial court on the record at sentencing of his right to appeal within 30 days of the entry of judgment or that if he was indigent he could be appointed an attorney for appeal. A direct appeal was never taken. On Sept. 19, 2013 — 11 months after the final entry of judgment — Whittaker filed a post-conviction motion in the trial court requesting an out-of-time appeal. The trial court entered an order denying Whittaker’s post-conviction motion on April 22, 2014, citing lack of jurisdiction due to the motion being filed more than 180 days after entry of the judgment of conviction. The trial court granted Whittaker’s motion for indigency status to appeal the denial of post-conviction relief.

The Court of Appeals reversed the ruling denying Whittaker's out-of-time appeal and sent the case back to Weill  to conduct an evidentiary hearing on whether Whittaker was entitled to an out-of-time appeal, with particular consideration of whether Whittaker was aware of his potential right to court-appointed appellate counsel.

Amfed National Insurance v. NTC Transportation

An employee of NTC Transportation Inc. filed petitions with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission, claiming he had suffered compensable work-related injuries on two occasions. AmFed National Insurance Co., believing NTC’s workers’ compensation coverage had lapsed for failure to timely pay the premium, denied coverage. That led to a lawsuit. A judgment was rendered in favor of NTC.

The state Supreme Court said law and facts of the case showed NTC had no insurance coverage with AmFed at the time of the worker’s injury. The court reversed the judgment and ruled in favor of AmFed.

Reynolds v. Allied Emergency Services

After hearing all the evidence in a medical-malpractice trial, a jury retired to deliberate. At some point during deliberations, jurors requested a copy of the jury instructions, which the bailiff provided. But instead of providing the approved set of instructions, the bailiff mistakenly provided a set the defendants previously had proffered, which included a peremptory instruction. The jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, and the parties left the courthouse. When Weill discovered the jury instruction mistake later that afternoon, he called the parties back to the courthouse and later ordered a new trial. But the defendants filed a motion to enforce the high/low settlement agreement the parties had entered into prior to trial. The trial judge agreed with the defendants that a new trial was not allowed under the agreement and rescinded his previous order granting it.

The state Supreme Court in June reversed the decision and remanded the case back to Weill for a new trial.

Ray v. Mississippi Department of Public Safety

During the summer of 2009, Trooper First Class Sammy Ray issued tickets to four motorists, which formed the basis of charges of falsifying documents which lead to his dismissal. Ray appealed his dismissal to the Employee Appeals Board. The hearing officer upheld his termination. He appealed to the full board, which affirmed the decision. He then appealed to the Circuit Court, which affirmed his termination.

The state Supreme Court in 2014 ruled close examination of the statements from the four motorists failed to show that Ray issued them tickets for offenses he didn’t observe. The court said Ray’s due process rights were violated. The court ordered Ray reinstated with full back pay and benefits.

Williams v. State

After the state Supreme Court reversed and remanded the murder conviction of Harvey Williams, the Hinds County district attorney sought an order not to reprosecute the case, which Weill granted. Two days later and without notice to the accused, Weill sought to vacate his previously entered order not to prosecute the case, according to the state Supreme Court record. Weill removed the district attorney from the case and appointed the state attorney general’s office as special prosecutor to handle the case.

A second judge found the order not to prosecute couldn’t be rescinded, but appointed the AG’s office as special prosecutor.

The state Supreme Court threw out the attempted appointment of the AG’s office.

Stallworth v. State

The Rev. Jeffery Stallworth pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of sexual offense in the fourth degree, for which he received a suspended sentence and probation. A court in Maryland later expunged the misdemeanor conviction. When Stallworth returned to Mississippi, he was required to register as a sex offender. Stallworth petitioned Hinds County Circuit Court for relief from having to register as a sex offender. Weill denied the petition. The state Supreme Court overruled Weill, saying since Stallworth's conviction was expunged, he didn't have to register as a sex offender.

In Harvey v. State, the Court of Appeals  affirmed in part, reversed in part and rendered.

Dillard Harvey broke up two auto burglaries in one day. He might have been regaled as a hero had he not shot the second burglar in the back as he retreated, begging for his life, according to the court. Harvey was tried for murder and convicted of manslaughter as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm. The court affirmed those convictions and sentences but reversed an additional firearm enhancement of 10 years as a habitual offender based upon that crime.