Willie Lee Williams v. State of Mississippi
Willie Lee Williams v. State of Mississippi
Opinion
¶ 1. Willie Lee Williams appeals his unsuccessful motion to vacate his sentence which the Marion County Circuit Court denied on the basis that it was barred as a subsequent motion for postconviction relief (PCR). Because Williams's PCR motion was frivolous, time-barred, and successive-writ barred, we affirm the trial court's judgment. Additionally, this is Williams's eighth PCR motion and, as of this opinion, his fourth case resolved as contemplated by Mississippi Code Annotated section 47-5-76(1) (Rev. 2015). We take judicial notice that past sanctions of $100 and $200, even with his averred indigent status, have done little to deter Williams's abuse of judicial time and resources. As a result, we sanction Williams in the amount of $1,000 and prohibit him from filing further PCR motions in forma pauperis pursuant to the mandates of section 47-5-76(1).
FACTS
¶ 2. The facts and procedural history preceding this PCR motion were succinctly set forth by the Mississippi Supreme Court in
Williams v. State
,
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶ 3. A trial court's denial of a PCR motion will not be reversed unless it is found to be clearly erroneous.
Hughes v. State
,
DISCUSSION
I. Failure to Seek Leave to Proceed
¶ 4. Initially we note the record contains no order from the Supreme Court granting Williams leave to file his current PCR motion with the circuit court. Mississippi case law establishes that fact alone deprived the circuit court of jurisdiction to reach the merits of Williams's PCR Motion.
See
Williams v. State
,
II. Successive-Writ Bar
¶ 5. On direct appeal and in multiple PCR motions, Williams has repeatedly asserted that his sentencing as a habitual offender raises fundamental-rights concerns. Each time, his claims have been dismissed or denied.
See
Williams
,
¶ 6. Williams "bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that his claims are not barred as successive writs."
Salter v. State
,
III. Time-Bar
¶ 7. Williams filed his current PCR motion more than three years after the time the supreme court ruled on his direct appeal. Thus, his motion is time-barred.
¶ 8. However
,
Armstead
does nothing to affect Williams's conviction or sentence. Instead, it supports the admissibility and relevance of the testimony and evidence elicited at his trial. Williams seems to interpret
Armstead
to mean that because one officer involved in the chain of custody of the crack cocaine he sold did not testify at trial, he was denied the right to cross-examination that witness and his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the United States and Mississippi Constitution were violated. However, in
Armstead
, as in Williams's case, the forensic scientist or analyst who conducted the tests on the drug sold testified at trial and was available for cross-examination.
Armstead
,
IV. Constitutional-Rights Violation
¶ 9. Williams claims that his absence from his resentencing hearing violates his fundamental right to be free from an illegal sentence. Yet, he has failed to demonstrate any logical relation between the acts or omissions of the court and encroachment upon any of his fundamental constitutional rights. Further, he fails to set forth any applicable supporting legal authority. It is well established that we are "not required to address any issue that is not supported by reasons and authority," and we decline to do so here.
Varvaris v. Perreault
,
V. Parole Eligibility
¶ 10. Williams notes that in September 30, 2016, he petitioned for the circuit judge's parole recommendation but that the circuit judge has not responded. That petition is entirely separate from the unsuccessful PCR motion that led to this appeal. Therefore, the issue of the grant or denial of his parole request is not properly before this Court. So, while we are under no obligation to address this issue, we note that in his continuing attempt to circumvent the time and procedural bars applicable to his PCR motion, Williams invokes the equal-protection clause of the constitution, arguing that the trial court's inaction on his request for parole implicated a fundamental constitutional right. Even if the circuit judge denied his parole request, that would not have been an appealable judgment.
See
Morgan v. State
,
VI. Sanctions
¶ 11. Williams's current motion was filed without permission from the supreme court. It is one of many filings made by Williams in the courts of this state and is procedurally barred as successive-writ and time-barred. Williams filed the motion despite numerous warnings and sanctions from the supreme court. As detailed before, Williams's 2012 PCR motion was found to be frivolous; he has since been twice sanctioned for frivolous filings; and his present filing is his eighth PCR motion, which we find to be frivolous. Section 47-5-76(1) prohibits repeated filings of objectively frivolous PCR motions.
¶ 12. This Court and the trial courts are vested with authority to and have imposed monetary sanctions on pro se litigants for frivolous filings.
Reed v. State
,
CONCLUSION
¶ 13. We therefore affirm the trial court's judgment and sanction Williams, as discussed above.
¶ 14. AFFIRMED.
LEE, C.J., GRIFFIS, P.J., BARNES, CARLTON, FAIR, WILSON AND GREENLEE, JJ., CONCUR. IRVING, P.J., CONCURS IN PART AND DISSENTS IN PART WITHOUT SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION. WESTBROOKS, J., DISSENTS WITHOUT SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.