State v. Parkman

MAXWELL, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. Mississippi does not allow criminal defendants to use pretrial pleadings to test the sufficiency of the evidence supporting an indictment. Yet here the trial court granted a defendant’s pretrial challenge to the evidence supporting the embezzlement count of a three-count indictment, dismissing the charge with prejudice. Because our supreme court has emphasized the proper time to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence is during trial after the State has presented its case, and not at a pretrial hearing, we have no alternative but to reverse the dismissal of…