Hall v. State

Summary

The Mississippi Supreme Court held that a defendant may not be convicted of accessory after the fact to burglary when that offense was not charged in the indictment and was not a lesser-included offense. Because the State, rather than the defendant, requested the instruction, the trial court committed plain error by permitting the jury to consider the unindicted offense. The court reversed the judgment of conviction and vacated the sentence without remanding for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. Accessory after the fact is a separate and distinct offense, not a lesser-included offense of the principal burglary offense, and a defendant cannot be convicted of it unless it is charged by indictment or the defendant waives indictment. Because Hall neither was indicted for accessory after the fact nor waived indictment, the State was not entitled to instructions S-9 and S-10.
2. Although Hall did not preserve the specific indictment-based objection to the instructions, the trial court's authorization of conviction for an unindicted, non-lesser-included offense constituted plain error.
3. The proper disposition was to reverse the judgment of conviction and vacate the sentence without remanding for further proceedings.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court erred by granting the State's requested jury instructions on accessory after the fact to burglary when Hall was not indicted for that offense and did not waive indictment.
2. Whether the State presented sufficient evidence to support Hall's conviction for accessory after the fact to burglary.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded