A lawyer for a man charged with killing a Catholic priest has filed a complaint that says his client can’t get a fair trial because of a television ad aired by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s successful re-election campaign.

The complaint, filed with the Mississippi Bar and obtained by The Associated Press, said the commercial tainted the prospective jury pool by referring to Jeremy Wayne Manieri as someone who “murdered a 70-year-old priest in cold blood.”

Manieri has been charged by police, but not indicted by a grand jury.

The complaint, dated Nov. 22 and signed by Manieri’s attorney, Brian Alexander of Bay St. Louis, says all people accused of crimes have the right to the presumption of innocence.

“This complaint is far larger than Jeremy Manieri or Jim Hood. With the long view in mind, this is about the countless people in Mr. Manieri’s position who are clinging to the notion that our system still adheres to vestiges of fairness and due process,” the complaint says. “That Mr. Hood did, in knowing and willful dereliction of his duties and ethical constraints prescribed by the Bar, the constitution and basic morality, harm my client’s cause for personal gain is irrefutable.”

Those words are about Attorney General Jim Hood, spoken by someone who according to press reports supported Hood’s reelection and even contributed to his campaign.

It seems Jim Hood’s campaign commercial said a defendant murdered someone, a defendant who has yet to go to trial.

The defendant’s lawyer is understandably upset.

“I supported Jim Hood’s candidacy,” Alexander said, “but Jim Hood has run roughshod over my client and has trampled his rights, to include the right to a presumption of innocence.”

“This is really way bigger than Mr. Manieri and way bigger than Attorney General Jim Hood. It is about all people who stand accused, and the most fundamental element of the presumption of innocence.

“For the top law enforcement officer, the top prosecutor, the top attorney in the state to have such callous disregard is absolutely unethical, outrageous and unconstitutional.”

Alexander said his options include filing a complaint against Hood with the Mississippi Bar Association or the Mississippi Ethics Commission, or asking the state Legislature to impeach Hood.

“When you take an oath to uphold the Constitution, it really means something,” Alexander said.

“Jim Hood distorted the truth for his own political gain and used non-facts and untruth to trample on the rights of my client. As an elected official, he is obligated to act with fairness, integrity and trustworthiness. It is imperative that this not go unstated.”

That’s right, he mentioned an option of asking Hood to be impeached.

As Majority in Mississippi reported last month, this is not Hood’s first guilty unless proven innocent campaign moment. He also named Entergy as a corporate wrong doer in a statewide campaign commercial. Hood has gone after Entergy but has yet to prove wrong doing in court.

Either Jim Hood thinks it is OK to pronounce guilt with himself as a judge without regard to the court, or he has demonstrated reckless behavior by the state’s top prosecutor.

Governor Haley Barbour’s press release from yesterday:

Gov. Haley Barbour today warned the Joint Legislative Budget Committee against relying on a recent legal settlement with pharmaceutical companies as a windfall for the state budget next year.

In a letter to committee members, Gov. Barbour said the state will only receive a fraction of the settlement funds.

“I am writing to make sure you and others are not misled by this entry to think the State has $20.041 million in additional funds that will be available for appropriation or expenditure either now or in the next fiscal year,” Gov. Barbour wrote. “We do not.”

In fact, Gov. Barbour points out that the State of Mississippi may receive less than $1 million of the settlement proceeds, while Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s law firm, which represented the state in the lawsuit, has been awarded more than $5 million in fees by Attorney General Jim Hood.

The letter is here and a letter from Division of Medicaid.

We’re sure Ronnie Musgrove has a swell family. But hopefully when Jim Hood says he is protecting Mississippi families, he doesn’t mean only the ones who are campaign contributors.

Attorney General Jim Hood sought to continue to divert $20 million a year away from the needs of Mississippi’s health care and to a private nonprofit organization which his buddy Mike Moore was/is chairman. That money was part of the tobacco settlement designed to reimburse Mississippi’s Medicaid program and health care costs.

When it came time to line up to “protect Mississippi families” Hood chose Mike Moore instead.

Mike Moore and Jim Hood

The Supreme Court of Mississippi puts it all out there in this decision: No. 2006-SA-01088-SCT

In case you don’t recall the outcome, the Supreme Court overwhelmingly agreed with Governor Haley Barbour, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, and the Mississippi Health Care Trust Fund and ruled against Attorney General Jim Hood and The Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.  That ruling allows for $20 million more dollars a year to go toward “protecting Mississippi families” rather than to Mike Moore’s private nonprofit organization…and Jim Hood opposed that ruling.

Jim Hood is running for reelection on the platform of “Protecting Mississippi Families” but who does he really represent? Maybe it should be “Protecting Mississippi Lawyers (Who Are Hood’s Friends).”

The obvious question is “Whose family is he protecting?”

Dickie Scruggs, Steve Patterson, and former Special Assistant Attorneys General Joey Langston and Tim Balducci

Remember what he told the Clarion Ledger?

State Attorney General Jim Hood said today it would be a conflict of interest for his office to file charges against several attorneys involved in a high-profile judicial bribery scandal.

Filing a state case now could interfere with a federal case that is already in the courts, Hood told The Clarion-Ledger at an editorial board meeting.

“I’m too close to them,” he said. “It would be like prosecuting my relatives.”

Jim Hood…protecting Mississippi families.

Fortunately, the feds were protecting laws.

Leniency was key to 24-month prison sentences Friday for judicial bribery co-defendants Timothy Balducci and Steven Patterson.

It was Senior U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr.’s first “slack” shown in the federal case, which has scandalized the legal profession and public, and brought down one of America’s best-known attorneys, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs of Oxford.

The two men, who lived and worked together in New Albany when they were indicted Nov. 28, 2007, were the last co-defendants of the conspiracy known as Scruggs I. They, Scruggs, his lawyer son Zach and a law partner pleaded guilty to varying levels of crime associated with the attempted bribery of Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City in the spring of 2007.

-ROM

GOVERNOR: BRYANT 55%

LT. GOVERNOR: REEVES 52%

SOS: HOSEMANN 70%

TREASURER: RUNOFF SMITH & FITCH 35 and 35

AG COMMISSIONER: PHILLIPS 51%

TRANSPORTATION COMMISSIONER: HALL 60%

-ROM

Even though it’s almost all still pictures and we usually hate these kinds of ads.

The message brings this one through.

ROM Overall Grade: B+

-ROM

This was just emailed in and it looks bogus.  I doubt the Log Cabin Republicans are getting involved in the Mississippi Republican Primaries. Smells like someone is up to some dirty tricks.  The letter is not mentioned on their website: LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS

And the signature and the name of the executive director do not match.

We don’t appreciate this kind of dirty, nasty, underhanded politics so we are here to call this out, that’s why blogging can be a force for good.  If this letter is in fact fake and if anyone else received this please let us know.

-ROM