JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Attorney General Jim Hood says the Mississippi Supreme Court will determine whether an executive pardon needs to be published for 30 days before the governor signs off on it. If so, the matter regarding the roughly 200 pardons issued by former Governor Haley Barbour will head back to circuit court.
"Go back to each individual case and see if they actually published in the proper period of time," Attorney General Jim Hood said.
Attorney General Hood will be at the February 9th hearing before the Supreme Court with legal briefs in hand. He pointed to a 1923 Mississippi Supreme Court case in which a pardon came into question, and was ruled valid because notice of the pardon had been properly published, and the governor at that time had the file to prove it.
But some of the files concerning the criminals pardoned by former Governor Barbour are missing, including the file for Joseph Ozment. A convicted murderer, Ozment was a trustie at the governor's mansion. He was the only released inmate who did not check in with local authorities after the Hinds County Circuit Court issued a stay on the pardons.
This week, Ozment was located in Wyoming, and served a court order to return.
"We will seek a contempt order, if Ozment decides to ignore the order," Hood said. "The Supreme Court is gonna decide this one quickly. If they void these pardons, he'll be an escapee. There will be a warrant issued for his arrest. We'll see what kind of man he is."
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