The Mississippi Court of Appeals this week unanimously rejected a request for post-conviction relief from a Marion County man serving a life sentence for two murders.
Terrell Bass, 66, had claimed he received ineffective counsel from public defenders, his guilty plea was involuntary and his indictment was defective.
But the court found that his case was filed too late. State law gives three years after a conviction, but Bass was convicted in 2009 and filed this motion in 2016.
Bass, of the Bunker Hill community, fatally shot his estranged wife — Tonya Stogner, 38, of Foxworth — and Ronald Plummer, 30, of Collins with a shotgun in 2008 as well as wounding Hershel Stogner, 42. It happened on Mississippi 35 in Foxworth. Bass took a plea deal to avoid the possibility of the death penalty.
In a decision handed down Tuesday, appellate judges rejected his three arguments:
1. Bass said he should have received attorneys from the state Office of Capital Defense instead of public defenders, but the court said while defendants have an absolute right to a lawyer, they do not have an absolute right to choose who that lawyer is. It also noted that at Bass’ plea hearing, he testified he had resolved his issues with his attorneys and was satisfied with their work.
2. Bass said because the judge, before he entered his plea, had rejected his request for new lawyers that left him “no option other than to investigate and prepare for a capital-murder case from inside a jail cell” and that he would not have pleaded guilty otherwise. But the court said the plea hearing transcript shows his guilty plea was “intelligently and voluntarily given, without any coercion” and allowed him to avoid the possibility of the death penalty.
3. Capital murder requires another felony being committed at the time of the killing. And if that underlying crime is burglary, then the underlying offense to the burglary must be stated in the indictment. Bass said his indictment did not state that underlying crime, but the court said it did. The indictment said the burglary was committed “with intent to commit the crime of aggravated assault and with the intent to kill.”
