Conner v. State

¶ 39. There can be no doubt that prosecutions under Mississippi’s habitual-offender statutes must occur in bifurcated trials. Seely v. State, 451 So.2d 213, 214 (Miss.1984). At the sentencing trial, “the circuit judge is to serve as the finder of fact in determining whether the habitual offender part of the indictment is established by the requisite degree of prooff,]” that is, beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 215. After reviewing the transcript of the pretrial hearing on the motion to amend the indictment as well as the sentencing hearing, I am convinced that the State failed to prove the…