Legal Question in Criminal Law in Mississippi

Re: Court Days

Trial dates can be extended for any one of a number of reasons. Depending on the charge and the Court that he is in, the case can be continued because a higher priority (older) case may be ready for trial on the same date as the date his trial is scheduled, thus he has to wait until the conclusion of that priority trial. A murder trial can take precedence over a drug possession trial for example. Other reasons include the fact that the defendant's lawyer may be engaged in a previously set trial in another court, the paperwork on his case may be incomplete, there may be more evidence coming in his trial which has not yet been disclosed to the Defendant or his Attorney thus the case would be reset for them to consider the new evidence, or the Attorney may be moving it intentionally hoping to gain some tactical advantage to the trial, such as loss of memory of details of the arrest by the arresting officer or such as death of a witness who may be ill. Other reasons include extending the date with the hopes that a witness will become unavailable, or conversely extending the date until a key witness is available to attend the trial to testify. If your brother has been in jal the entire time there may be a presumption of prejudice which accompanies the delay and the State will be required to show that they were ready and willing to prosecute the case within 270 days of the date he entered the Not Guilty plea (plus any days the case was extended by the Defendant's attorney) and the case may be dismissed. I strongly suggest that your brother immediately consult competent counsel to discuss the actual facts of your the case and the reasons for each and every delay.