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Taylor v. State1/25/2000
C.J., IRVING, AND THOMAS, JJ.
SOUTHWICK, P.J., CONCURRING
. With respect for the views of the majority and with a request for forbearance in my writing separately, I disagree with the reasoning on some of the issues. Nonetheless, I agree that we are shown no reversible error and should affirm.
. Plain error.
A minor point concerns Taylor's repetitive use of the phrase "plain error." When used as a term-of-art, this phrase refers to certain otherwise waived errors. Taylor's use of the phrase seems nothing more than for emphasis. "Clear error" might have been a better way to phrase it. Almost all the allegations that he makes are said to reflect "plain error" by the trial court, but also almost all of them were the basis of objections at trial. Plain error analysis is unnecessary.
. Case authorities.
A more important disagreement with the majority concerns the level of citation to authorities that is necessary before we will consider an issue. I certainly agree that a bare statement of error, unsupported by reference to case law, statute, or court rule, makes too great a demand upon an appellate court. In rare situations, when the argument has been called "novel" and therefore likely to take a court where no court has gone before, the supreme court has considered issues for which no reference to authorities is made. Kelly v. State, 553 So.2d 517, 521 (Miss.1989). Some appellants are simply the first to discover an argument, and it should not be rejected for its originality. I acknowledge the arguments here are not of that nature.
. What we face are several issues that are supported by citations to statutes and court rules and not to case law. I do not agree that an argument merely based on a statute or rule is not supported and can be ignored. Depending on the issue, these may be the best authorities of all. If a statute of limitation for the cause of action is two years, a case citation that quotes the statute as providing for a two year limitation period adds nothing to our understanding. Case citations are not an end unto themselves. Sometimes they are unnecessary to the logic and force of an argument.
. The first discovered reference to the rule being used was by Justice V. A. Griffith. The court was given general statements of error that were "not manifest or self-evident, and yet not a single authority is cited in appellant's brief, nor is there any definite statement of any particular principle of law which appellant would have us apply." Johnson v. State, 122 So. 529, 154 Miss. 512 (1929), (cited in Dozier v. State, 247 Miss. 850, 850, 157 So.2d 798, 798 (1963)). Corpus Jurisprudence was quoted that to the extent "possible, the reasons assigned should be supported by the citation of authorities or they will not be considered, unless it is clearly apparent that they are well taken." Johnson, 154 Miss. at 513, 122 So. at 529. "`It is seldom sufficient to state naked legal propositions, for propositions are by no means always self-evident,' Elliott, App. Proc. pp. 375, 376; and when not self-evident the party who advances them and cites no authority to support them may justly be said to have failed to maintain them." Johnson, 154 Miss. at 513, 122 So. at 529.
. What I find to be the guiding principle here, one that is not necessarily rejected by the majority but certainly is hidden, is that citations to relevant legal authorities are necessary except for "self- evident" propositions:
It is a strange case upon which, in these days of tens of thousands of law books, no authority can be found, and when none is presented and the proposition is not manifestly well taken, there is
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