Kelvin Dycus v. State of Mississippi
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI
NO. 1998-DP-01094-SCT
KELVIN DYCUS a/k/a KEVIN DYCUS
v.
STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
DATE OF JUDGMENT:
TRIAL JUDGE:
COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED:
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT:
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE:
DISTRICT ATTORNEY:
NATURE OF THE CASE:
DISPOSITION:
6/19/1998
HON. KENNETH L. THOMAS
BOLIVAR COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
RAYMOND L. WONG
ROBERT McDUFF
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: JUDY T. MARTIN
MARVIN L. WHITE
LAURENCE Y. MELLON
CRIMINAL - DEATH PENALTY DIRECT APPEAL
AFFIRMED IN PART; VACATED
AND REMANDED IN PART- 09/15/2005
MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED:
MANDATE ISSUED:
EN BANC.
GRAVES, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:
¶1.
This case is before the Court on remand from the United States Supreme Court. Dycus
v. Mississippi, _ U.S._ , 125 S.Ct. 1589, 161 L.Ed.2d 271 (2005).
Kelvin Dycus and his
brother Jason Dycus were arrested for the 1996 murder and robbery of 76-year-old Mary
Pittman.
At the time of the murder, Kelvin Dycus was 17 years old, and his brother was 15
years old. A jury convicted Kelvin Dycus of capital murder and sentenced him to death. The
jury also convicted Dycus of auto theft for which he was sentenced to five years in the custody
of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
This Court affirmed both convictions and
sentences. Dycus v. State, 875 So.2d 140 (Miss. 2004).
The United States Supreme Court
subsequently held that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States
Constitution forbid the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the age
of 18 when their crimes were committed. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S._, 125 S.Ct. 1183,
1200, 161 L.Ed.2d 1, 28 (2005).
The United States Supreme Court thereafter vacated the
judgment of this Court and remanded
decision in Roper.
this
case for further consideration in light of its
This Court called for supplemental briefs from the parties, and both sides
concur that Dycus must be resentenced to life in prison without parole.
¶2.
This Court has considered this case further in light of Roper.
Roper requires that
Dycus’s death sentence be vacated and this case remanded for resentencing.
However, Roper
does not affect the remainder of this Court’s prior opinion and judgment.
Accordingly, this
Court now reaffirms the convictions of Kelvin Dycus for capital murder and auto theft and his
sentence for auto theft and hereby reinstates and adopts its prior opinion in its entirety except
to the extent it addresses the issues relating to the death sentence. As required by the United
States Supreme Court in Roper, this Court hereby vacates the death sentence of Kelvin Dycus
and remands this case to the Circuit Court of Bolivar County for resentencing of Kelvin Dycus
on Count I to life imprisonment in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections
without the possibility of parole.
¶3.
COUNT I: CONVICTION OF CAPITAL MURDER AFFIRMED. SENTENCE OF
DEATH BY LETHAL INJECTION, VACATED AND CASE REMANDED FOR
RESENTENCING TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT IN THE CUSTODY OF THE
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MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF
PAROLE.
COUNT II: CONVICTION OF UNLAWFUL THEFT OF AN AUTOMOBILE AND
SENTENCE OF FIVE (5) YEARS IN THE CUSTODY OF THE MISSISSIPPI
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, AFFIRMED.
SMITH, C.J., WALLER AND COBB, P.J., CARLSON AND DICKINSON, JJ.,
CONCUR. EASLEY, J., CONCURS IN RESULT ONLY. RANDOLPH, J., SPECIALLY
CONCURS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY SMITH, C.J.,
WALLER AND COBB, P.JJ., EASLEY AND CARLSON, JJ.
DIAZ, J., NOT
PARTICIPATING.
RANDOLPH, JUSTICE, SPECIALLY CONCURRING:
¶4.
I concur in the majority’s opinion and judgment because my oath and loyalty to this
office and the law require me to comply with the mandate of the United States Supreme Court
in Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S.-, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005), for separate and
distinct, but intertwined reasons. First, the United States Constitution clearly vests in the
Supreme Court the absolute judicial power of the United States. U.S. Const. art. III, § 1. Next,
respect for the rule of law is essential for the orderly administration of justice.
See Roper,
125 S.Ct. at 1217, 1226-27 (Scalia, J., joined by Rehnquist, C.J., & Thomas, J., dissenting).
Finally, the Code of Judicial Conduct requires a judge to be faithful, respectful, and compliant
with the law, as well as not swayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear of criticism.
Miss. Code of Judicial Conduct, Canons 2A & 3B(2).
¶5.
I am bound by the Roper decision. Therefore, it is of no import what my personal views
on the death penalty, or any other subject, may be; or, whether I personally agree or disagree
with an opinion of the Supreme Court; or for that matter, whether the opinion relies on sound
logic and reasoning leading to a just result, vel non.
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¶6.
The dissents in Roper opine that the majority decision is legally flawed, lacks valid
reasoning and defies historic precedent.
See Roper, 125 S.Ct. at 1217-30 (Scalia, J.,
dissenting). If personal whims or beliefs are besetting the Constitution, and ignoring the rule
of law, then those culpable of such conduct should either recuse themselves from such cases,
or consider the honorable path chosen by former Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Blackmun, when
faced with such a dilemma declared, “I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.”
Callins v. Collins, 510 U.S. 1141, 114 S.Ct. 1127, 1130, 127 L.Ed.2d 435 (1994) (Blackmun,
J., dissenting from denial of certiorari), and shortly thereafter, retired.
¶7.
Our Constitution requires strict adherence to the doctrine of separation of powers. The
people’s will can best be determined by the nation’s legislatures, both federal and state, for
social policy and in individual cases, by a jury of one’s peers. I would respectfully urge the
Supreme Court to exercise judicial restraint, as the function of all courts is to adjudicate, not
to legislate. Courts are charged with the responsibility to interpret, not create law.
¶8.
“In a democratic society legislatures, not courts, are constituted to respond to the will
and consequently the moral values of the people.” Roper, 125 S.Ct. at 1222 (Scalia, J.,
dissenting) (quoting Furman v Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 383, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346
(1972) (Burger, C.J., dissenting)). “[W]e have, in our determination of society’s moral
standards, consulted the practices of sentencing juries: Juries ‘maintain a link between
contemporary community values and the penal system’ that this Court cannot claim for itself.”
Roper, 125 S.Ct. at 1222 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (quoting Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S.
510, 519 n.15, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968)).
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¶9.
The Roper majority declared that the “expansive language in the Constitution, must be
interpreted according to its text, by considering history, tradition, and precedent, and with due
regard for its purpose and function in the constitutional design. To implement this framework
we have established the propriety and affirmed the necessity of referring to ‘the evolving
standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society’ to determine which
punishments are so disproportionate as to be cruel and unusual.” Roper, 125 S.Ct. at 1190
(quoting Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 78 S.Ct. 590, 598, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958)(plurality
opinion)). Such amorphous terminology provided the framework upon which Roper was
decided. It is not the Constitution which is changing, but only some individual justices
rearranging a shapeless concept to fit their personal whims and declaring that to be the law du
jour, without sufficient deference to the intent of the framers of the Constitution; the rule of
law; legislative acts; and finally, the decision of a jury.
¶10.
The Supreme Court’s implementation and subsequent reliance upon Trop, and a series
of other of plurality decisions, has self-empowered the Court to impose its independent moral
judgment
on constitutional issues. In Roper,
the
majority
applied
this
framework,
“substitut[ing] [its] judgment about the moral propriety of capital punishment for 17-year-old
murderers for the judgments of the Nation's legislatures.” Roper, 125 S.Ct. at 1206
(O’Connor, J., dissenting).
¶11.
In his dissent, Justice Scalia, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Thomas,
opines the majority in Roper
not only changed the Constitution, but failed to honor the rule
of law, while “proclaim[ing] itself sole arbiter of our Nation’s moral standards,” Roper, 125
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S.Ct. at 1217 (Scalia, J., dissenting), and at the same time saying “what our people’s laws say
about the issue does not... matter.....” Id.
¶12.
Such heinous and atrocious crimes, as committed by Simmons and Dycus, as well as
the ever-increasing multitude of other heinous crimes involving the abduction, torture,
molestation and murders by sexual predators should cause the Court to pause, reflect, and then
reconsider the existing framework by which it analyzes the United States Constitution.
¶13.
One only needs to look at the negative changes in our society caused by the attacks on
the Constitution and the resultant experiential harm suffered by individual citizens of this
country to question why a strict adherence to such a novel concept of less than forty-seven
years should be the appropriate standard for interpreting the Constitution. I marvel that this
framework was either completely overlooked by or hidden from all of the learned justices who
sat on the Court for 169 years preceding Trop. If blindly followed, this treatment of the
Constitution shall most assuredly lead to the ruin and destruction of the noblest democratic
experiment in the history of man.
SMITH, C.J., WALLER AND COBB, P.JJ., EASLEY AND CARLSON, JJ., JOIN
THIS OPINION.
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