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The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied Attorney General Jim Hood’s motion asking justices to reconsider their decison to uphold the pardons of former Gov. Haley Barbour.

The Court, split 6-3, ruled in early March that it had no jurisdiction to review Barbour’s decision, because doing so would violate separation of powers.

The vote denying Hood’s motion for rehearing was 8-1. Justice Bubba Pierce, of Leakesville, was the lone vote to rehear the case. Such motions are rarely granted.

I’ve left a message with Hood’s spokesperson. It’s likely he’ll have a reaction to this at some point this afternoon. If/when he does, I’ll post it.

UPDATE: Hood has released a statement. Here it is, verbatim:

“It is a shame that former Governor Barbour abused the pardon power.  It is even more of a travesty that a majority of the present Mississippi Supreme Court chose not to enforce the clear language in our State Constitution.  The people will have to enforce the law by going through the initiative process to amend our Constitution to prevent this abuse of the pardon power and this travesty of justice from ever happening again.  I pray no person becomes a victim of any of these pardoned criminals.”

I’ve written recently about the success a few Mississippi small businesses and artists have had with online fundraising tools like Kickstarter.

Not all campaigns are as successful as those, though, and one example of that comes from a documentary David Rae Morris, Willie’s boy, wanted to do about Yazoo City. “Yazoo Revisited” would have examined via interviews with people who were there — including former Gov. Haley Barbour — the racial and social dynamics of Yazoo City during the second half of the 20th Century. School integration would have been a big part of it.

Morris reached less than half of his $15,000 goal before his deadline. That’s a shame, and I hope he gains the money he needs to tell this story, because it’s one worth telling.

For a preview of what he’s already done, click here.

Attorney General Jim Hood entertained questions from reporters in his office Friday afternoon about the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the scores of pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour.

He didn’t reveal much beyond what he said in a statement Thursday afternoon. He was disappointed with the ruling. He thinks it sets a dangerous constitutional precedent regarding the separation of powers among the three branches of government. And, he plans on pursuing a ballot initiative to strengthen the newspaper publication requirement related to the pardon process.

Hood did say that if various victims’ rights and law enforcement organizations would prefer a pardon review board be put in place — something several states have — instead of using the ballot initiative to simply force the state’s high court to enforce the publication clause, he would go along with that. He also said more than once that folks who think that Barbour was within his rights to issue as many pardons as he did, would be hard-pressed to deny that it wasn’t an abuse of power.

“Even the justices who voted with the majority realize that,” Hood said.

As for the initiative, Hood wasn’t sure which ballot would be the earliest the initiative could potentially be on. With roughly 120,000 signatures from the five old Congressional districts needed, it would be impossible to get the issue before lawmakers for them to put on November’s ballot before the session ends in late April. After November, Mississippi’s next statewide election will be in 2015.

There is one remedy still available to Hood. He could file a motion for re-hearing, which would entail asking the same court that ruled against him Thursday to reconsider its decision. Hood didn’t slam the door shut on that possibility; he didn’t sound very likely to actually do it, either. Such motions are almost never granted.

In its list of hand downs Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld former Gov. Haley Barbour’s pardons.

The Court, split 6-3, ruled that it had no jurisdiction to review Barbour’s decision, because doing so would violate separation of powers.

“This case is about whether this Supreme Court has the right, authority, and power to declare itself superior to, and above, both the other two branches of government in all matters of constitutional compliance. While this Court clearly has the constitutional duty to interpret the content of laws passed by the Legislature and executive orders issued by the governor, we decline – as have so many other courts before us – to assume for ourselves the absolute power to police the other branches of government in fulfilling their constitutional duties to produce laws and executive orders, unless there is alleged a justiciable violation of a personal right,” Justice Jess Dickenson, writing for the majority, said in the opinion.

In all, Barbour issued 198 pardons, 26 of which applied to inmates who were incarcerated at the time. Some of those 26 received conditional clemency or were released to keep the state from having to pay their extensive medical bills. The others had already completed their sentences, and had been free in some cases for several years.

Attorney General Jim Hood argued that only two dozen or so of the pardoned had met the newspaper publication requirement, which required notice 30 days in advance that an inmate was seeking a gubernatorial pardon. He made that the centerpiece of his argument in January in front of Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green, who issued an injunction temporarily invalidating the pardons, and in early February in front of all nine of the Supreme Court justices. Green’s injunction ordered those who were incarcerated to remain in custody until appeals were exhausted.

Hood concentrated on five inmates who served as trusties at the Governor’s Mansion during Barbour’s time there, all of whom had been convicted of murder. They had already been released from confinement by the time Green issued the injunction. Each was ordered to maintain regular contact with the Mississippi Department of Corrections while the appeals played out. One, Joseph Ozment, remained missing for several days before being found in Wyoming.

An email from Mississippi Press Association executive director Layne Bruce says that “a long list” of Gov. Haley Barbour’s last-minute pardons were not properly advertised in advance, as required by state law.

That’s the crux of the argument Attorney General Jim Hood made Wednesday before Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green in his attempt to gain an injunction to stop the release of some of those pardoned who were still in prison.

In the email. sent Wednesday night, Bruce told members of a MPA listserv that a search by MPA staff members to determine if each of the pardons met the 30-day notice requirement before the pardons were issued “turned up quite a long list of those that didn’t. In more than one case, the public notice for someone requesting a pardon won’t even start publishing until tomorrow (Thursday), two days after the former governor signed the pardon order.”

Green apparently had similar doubts about some of the pardons meeting the advertising requirement, because at Hood’s request she signed an order Wednesday evening halting the release of the still-incarcerated pardons.

What this means in the long run, it’s hard to tell. That the MPA, whose member newspapers in a lot of cases would serve as the advertising medium, has already determined many of Barbour’s pardons were not properly noticed certainly does not bode well for the validity of what the former governor did.

Complicating things is Butler Snow’s announcement Wednesday afternoon that Barbour had joined the firm.

Why would that be troublesome? Butler Snow serves as MPA’s general counsel.

Former Gov. Haley Barbour has just released a statement after a good 24 hours of sound and fury relating to his last-minute pardon/clemency binge.

Here it is, in full:

Some people have misunderstood the clemency process and think that all or most of the individuals who received clemency from former Gov. Haley Barbour were in jail at the time of their release. Approximately 90 percent of these individuals were no longer in custody, and a majority of them had been out for years. The pardons were intended to allow them to find gainful employment or acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote. My decision about clemency was based upon the recommendation of the Parole Board in more than 90 percent of the cases. The 26 people released from custody due to clemency is just slightly more than one-tenth of 1 percent of those incarcerated.

Half of the people who were incarcerated and released were placed on indefinite suspension due to medical reasons because their health care expenses while incarcerated were costing the state so much money. These individuals suffer from severe chronic illnesses, are on dialysis, in wheelchairs or are bedridden. They are not threats to society but if any of them commits an offense – even a misdemeanor – they’ll be returned to custody to serve out their term.

Of the inmates released for medical reasons, a small number were placed on house arrest, and all still remain under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

Source: Mississippi Department of Corrections

See related story on Barbour’s pardons:
Judge puts release of Barbour’s pardoned prisoners on hold

The Mississippi Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday morning about the constitutionality of the state’s $1 million cap on non-economic damages in civil cases.

Magnolia Marketplace isn’t a lawyer, so you’re not going to find much in the way of legal analysis or a prediction here on which way the court rule.

What is clear is that there probably is no single issue for Mississippi’s business community more important than this one. It’s probably equally important to Mississippi’s plaintiffs’ bar.

The case that spawned Tuesday’s hearing – Sears & Roebuck Co. v. Lisa Learmonth – centers on a car wreck involving Learmonth, the plaintiff, who claims she was injured when she collided with a Sears van driven by one of the company’s employees. Learmonth was awarded about $4 million in punitive damages in the federal court trial, but the trial judge reduced that amount to conform with the $1 million cap. Learmonth’s attorneys appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to get the jury’s verdict as it related to the $4 million punitive damages upheld; Sears cross-appealed asking for a new trial, claiming it wasn’t liable for the accident in which Learmonth was injured. The Fifth Circuit then certified the constitutionality of the cap to our Supreme Court.

If you’re scoring at home, Chief Justice Bill Waller and Presiding Justice Jess Dickenson were the most active as far as questioning the attorneys from both sides. Both seemed a little more skeptical of the argument made by Sears’ attorneys, that the cap did not violate the right to a jury trial, and that the cap did not violate constitutionally outlined separation of powers among the branches of government.

Keeping intact the separation of powers and the right to a jury trial were the cornerstones of the arguments made by Learmonth’s attorneys.

Very little anecdotal observations of the cap were made. The one that stood out the most came from Justice Jim Kitchens, who asked Sears counsel, “Who is this cap working for? The business community? It’s not working for people with catastrophic injuries.” Kitchens, it should be noted, sounded the most unconvinced of the nine justices that the cap was constitutionally sound, even though he asked maybe six questions during the 90-minute hearing.

The cap was the centerpiece of 2004’s tort reform, which Gov. Haley Barbour made the cornerstone of his first campaign. Barbour and business associations and trade groups said the cap’s removal would return Mississippi to the reputation the state had pre-tort reform as a judicial hellhole. Opponents have built their rebuttal around the constitutionality of the cap, claiming that the Legislature has no authority to tell juries how much to award or not to award in civil cases.

For both sides, it comes down to money. Businesses don’t want their liability insurance premiums to rise with the removal of the cap. Plaintiff lawyers would love nothing more than for 8- and 9-figure compensatory damage awards to return.

And so now they wait.

Gov. Haley Barbour has just announced in Natchez that Illinois-based Elevance Renewable Sciences has purchased the old Delta BioFuels facility. The company will revamp and expand the 800,00 square-foot building so it can make its specialty chemicals for use in personal care products, detergents, plastics, lubricants and a few other things.

Magnolia Marketplace first reported Friday night that there would be a “major” economic development announcement in Natchez today. For Natchez, 165 new jobs over a five-year, multi-phased rollout would qualify as major. The Natchez and Adams County area has spent the past decade watching its major industries leave town, with probably the most crushing blow coming in 2001 when the International Paper mill shut down.

Here’s the full release from Barbour’s office:

NATCHEZ – Gov. Haley Barbour and executives from Elevance Renewable Sciences Inc., creator of high-performance renewable specialty chemicals for use in personal care products, detergents, plastics and lubricants, announced today the company has acquired the Delta BioFuels facility in Adams County. The company intends to convert the facility to a biorefinery and derivatives operation in a multi-phase project that will involve an investment of more than $225 million and will create 165 full-time jobs over the next five years, in addition to 300 construction jobs.
 
“Elevance’s decision to locate here in Mississippi results in a significant investment in the area and its economy, as well as in the local workforce,” Gov. Barbour said. “Job creation and retention is vital to a healthy economy, and I thank the company for creating these new jobs for southwest Mississippi’s residents. I am delighted to welcome Elevance to Natchez and Adams County.”
 
Elevance plans to expand the existing 800,000-square-foot refinery, which is located in Natchez, in multiple phases over the next five years. The result will be a world-scale biorefinery and derivatives operation.
 
“We are pleased to be coming to southwest Mississippi to build our first North American manufacturing facility. We plan on deploying Elevance’s innovative technology here to bring competitive manufacturing and high-value jobs back to the United States,” said K’Lynne Johnson, chief executive officer of Elevance. “These operations will complement our joint venture with Wilmar International in Asia and expand our global footprint. By building biorefineries in multiple geographies, we are responding to our customers’ demands for innovative environmentally friendly products in a cost-effective and scalable way.”
 
The Mississippi Development Authority worked with company and local officials to help facilitate the project. Through the Mississippi Industry Incentive Financing Revolving Fund, MDA provided assistance for upgrades at the Natchez/Adams County Port, as well as a $25 million loan to the company. Additionally, the county provided assistance for upgrades to the port to support this project.
 
“Today marks a milestone for Natchez and Adams County, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Elevance has chosen to locate its newest operations here,” said MDA Executive Director Leland Speed. “This announcement reinforces the fact that Mississippi has a business climate in place to meet the needs of any company. I thank Elevance for its investment in Natchez, Adams County and the entire state of Mississippi, as well as for its confidence in and commitment to Mississippi’s workers.”
 
Headquartered in Bolingbrook, Ill., Elevance Renewable Sciences Inc. creates valued specialty chemicals from natural oils. Using a Nobel Prize-winning technology called olefin metathesis, the company creates high performance ingredients for use in personal care products, detergents, fuels, lubricants and other specialty chemicals markets. To learn more about Elevance, please visit the company’s website at www.elevance.com.

Mississippi Development Authority interim executive director Leland Speed has sued Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, in an attempt to keep the eminent domain petition off November’s ballot.

If you’ll recall, the petition seeks to prevent the taking of private land for private development. It keeps in place the state’s authority to seize private land for public-use projects, like streets or bridges.

Nearly 120,000 people signed petitions to get the issue on the ballot. Hosemann certified the results last year.

The Mississippi Development Authority and Gov. Haley Barbour were adamantly against the notion of eliminating the state’s authority to use eminent domain for private economic development. Barbour and Gray Swoope, Speed’s successor at MDA, warned that projects like Toyota wouldn’t be in Mississippi if the law were changed.

Following a failure to change the law in the Legislature, a petition drive led by the Mississipi Farm Bureau Federation commenced, and the issue was set for the November ballot, until Thursday afternoon.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 25 in Hinds County Circuit Court.

Pamela Weaver, spokesperson for Hosemann, just told Magnolia Marketplace that he would not comment beyond a statement, in which he said he intended to follow state law and place the initiative on the ballot, unless otherwise ordered by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

We’ve left a message on the cell phone of an MDA spokesperson, which wasn’t immediately returned.

For what it’s worth, Magnolia Marketplace several months ago polled the major contenders in the governor’s race — Phil Bryant, Dave Dennis, Bill Luckett, Johnny Dupree and Hudson Holliday — and they were of one mind: Eminent domain should be employed only for projects of direct public use, and that doesn’t include private economic development. Bryant, Dennis and Holliday each signed the petition to get the initiative on the ballot.

If and when we hear something from the MDA, we’ll post it. Rest assured, though: This is going to be a fight.

UPDATE: MDA spokesperson Melissa Medley just returned our call. She said that agency would have no comment on Speed’s lawsuit since he filed it as an individual, and not in his official capacity as interim executive director of the MDA.

We just got off the phone with Speed’s assistant, who said he was out of town and wouldn’t return until Monday around lunchtime. We’ll try to catch up with him then.

Monday morning, Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, got a text message from Sen. Terry Burton, R-Newton, in which Newton asked Moak to allow the conference report for House Bill 1095 to clear the House, which would have sent it to Gov. Haley Barbour’s desk to await his signature. The text, Moak said, seemed odd because Moak had done no work on the bill. He wasn’t the committee chair that sent it to the floor, and he wasn’t one of the conferees appointed to hash it out.

HB 1095 is a bill that revises actual revenue numbers for fiscal year 2011 for several state agencies, including the Department of Public Safety and the Division of Medicaid. Language inserted either late last week or over the weekend, however, spells out the job description and educational requirements of the deputy director of administration of the Division of Medicaid. The educational requirements say a candidate “shall have at least five years’ experience in a health-related field and/or shall possess a special knowledge of Medicaid as pertaining to the State of Mississippi.  The Deputy Director of Administration may perform those duties of the executive director that the executive director has not expressly retained for himself.” The bill stipulates that the deputy director of administration would serve at the will and pleasure of the governor, and would be appointed by the governor.

 Moak, along with several other House Democrats and at least one Republican, opposed that language in the bill, saying it had been inserted too late in the process to property evaluate, and that it appeared to intend for a specific person to become the deputy director of administration at the Division of Medicaid.

“When several of us found out about it (over the weekend), that was the first time we had seen it,” Moak said. “We were really concerned.”

And when Moak got the text message from Burton in which Burton encouraged Moak to support the bill as a whole, Moak said it “kind of raised my eyebrows. I had no conversations with Burton about this beforehand. So somebody told him I was against it. That’s my logical rationale.”

Magnolia Marketplace called Burton to get his reaction to what Moak had told us, and to ask him if he was interested in becoming the deputy director of administration at the Division of Medicaid.

“I’ve qualified to run for re-election,” he told us. In that conversation, he denied having contacted any House member to encourage them to support the bill.

A few minutes after that, we called Moak back, who told us that he had received another text message from Burton, this one asking Moak to delete any text messages from Burton. Moak did not delete the messages, he said, because they could be the subject of a public records request.

Shortly after that, we called Burton again, who admitted to basically lobbying for the bill to Moak, but denied several times that he had been given assurances that the deputy director of administration job would be his.

“I supported it because the governor and the Division of Medicaid supported it,” Burton said. “If it’s for Medicaid, I’m going to support it. I’ve heard I’m going to be everything from Division of Medicaid Director to the head of the Department of Public Safety. Anything’s possible. Would I take the job if offered? I might.”

The job won’t be extended to anybody, because the language dealing with it has been taken out of the bill, after Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, made a point of order on the House floor that eliminated it. The conference report for the bill, minus the deputy director of administration language, has already been approved by both chambers and will now go to Barbour.

“I just didn’t understand the need,” Baker said, when asked why he raised the point of order that ended up striking the language. “We’re spending too much as it is.”

According to House Appropriations Chairman Johnny Stringer, who was one of the House conferees, the Division of Medicaid requested the language be inserted in the bill.

Division of Medicaid spokesperson Francis Rullan did tell us in an email this morning that the deputy director of administration position already exists, and that he is under the impression that it currently requires a college degree and a CPA license. We’ve followed up our original inquiry to see if the position is currently filled, what the salary would be and if the Division of Medicaid requested the language that was struck from the bill.

Before Baker’s action, the bill would have required that a candidate either have five years’ worth of experience in the healthcare field, or an intimate knowledge of Mississippi’s Medicaid system, or both. There was no requirement a candidate hold a college degree. Burton’s bio on the Senate website lists his education as having been attained from Newton High School. No college or university is listed.

Barbour spokesperson Laura Hipp said that the governor did not request the language be inserted into the bill, “but he wouldn’t have objected to it had it made it into the final version.”