Brumfield – Jim Hood to appeal Mills’ ruling in in death sentence case
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will appeal a federal order throwing out a Lowndes County death sentence.
Jan Schaefer, a Hood spokeswoman, said Wednesday that his office will appeal the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills of Oxford threw out Quintez Hodges’ death sentence, citing serious problems with the man’s trial defense and with what Mills called “false testimony” by then-Assistant District Attorney Jim Kitchens during the trial’s sentencing phase.
Kitchens, now a circuit judge, isn’t commenting publicly, but others are about the ruling that labeled his testimony false.
Forrest Allgood is district attorney in the 16th District, which includes Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties. Kitchens, who is not the Jim Kitchens on the Mississippi Supreme Court, was Allgood’s assistant before he won a circuit bench seat.
Mills said in his order that Allgood should have known the testimony was false.
Read more: NEMS360.com – Mills’ death case order sets off legal reactions
9/16/10
Magnolia Tribune
