Manning v. State

PRATHER, Chief Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. This appeal arises from the Batson order entered by the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court on remand by this Court. Because the circuit court’s findings regarding the State’s articulated race-neutral reasons for its use of peremptory strikes in this case were not clearly erroneous or against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, we affirm the circuit court’s judgment overruling Willie Jerome Manning’s Batson objection in this case. Following the statutorily mandated review of Manning’s sentence, we further find that the death penalty was lawfully…