Title 1, Laws and Statutes

The term “infamous crime,” when used in any statute, shall mean offenses punished with death or confinement in the penitentiary.

The term “infant,” when used in any statute, shall include any person, male or female, under twenty-one years of age.

The term “insurrection,” when used in any statute, means an armed assembly of persons having intent to resist or subvert lawful authority.

The term “intellectual disability,” when used in any statute, means a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, originates before the age of eighteen (18) years, and refers to persons who were, are and continue …

The term “land,” when used in any statute, shall include all corporeal hereditaments whatever, and any interest therein, whether an estate for years or a different estate.

Wherever the phrase “minimum education program,” “minimum program,” “minimum foundation program,” “Mississippi Adequate Education Program,” “adequate education program,” or “MAEP” shall appear in the laws of this state, it shall be construed to mean the “total funding formula” cr…

The term “minor,” when used in statute, except as otherwise provided by law, shall include any person, male or female, under twenty-one (21) years of age. If a statute refers to the ability to enter into a contract affecting personal property or real property, “minor” shall mean …

The term “month,” when used in any statute, means a calendar month, unless a contrary intention be expressed.

The term “bond,” when used in any statute, shall embrace every written undertaking for the payment of money or acknowledgment of being bound for money, conditioned to be void on the performance of any duty or the occurrence of any thing therein expressed and subscribed, and deliv…

Except as otherwise provided in Section 27-109-1, all rivers, creeks and bayous in this state, twenty-five (25) miles in length, and having sufficient depth and width of water for thirty (30) consecutive days in the year to float a steamboat with carrying capacity of two hundred …

Words used in the singular number only, either as descriptive of persons or things, shall extend to and embrace the plural number; and words used in the plural number shall extend to and embrace the singular number, except where a contrary intention is manifest.

The term “oath,” when used in any statute, shall include the word “affirmation,” in all cases where by law an affirmation may be substituted for an oath.

The term “offense,” when used in any statute, shall mean any violation of law liable to punishment by criminal prosecution.

The term “person,” when used in any statute, shall apply to artificial as well as natural persons; and when used to designate the party whose property may be the subject of offense, shall include the United States, this state, or any other state, territory, or country, and any co…

The terms “capital case,” “capital cases,” “capital offense,” “capital offenses,” and “capital crime” when used in any statute shall denote criminal cases, offenses and crimes punishable by death or imprisonment for life in the state penitentiary. The term “capital murder” when u…

The term “personal property,” when used in any statute, means all tangible and intangible personal property and shall include cash, goods, deposit accounts, chattels, effects, evidences of rights of action, and all written instruments, including promissory notes, by which any pec…

(a) The terms “photo identification,” “photographic identification,” “valid identification,” “valid identification card” or any similar term when used with reference to a personally identifying document required as legal documentation or required to be presented as part of a tran…

Every promise in writing whereby any person, firm or body politic or corporate promises or agrees to pay a sum of money or acknowledges the same to be due.

The term “property,” when used in any statute, includes personal property as defined in Section 1-3-41 and also every estate, interest, and right, in lands, tenements, and hereditaments.

Every person, firm, association of persons or company, whether incorporated or not, who shall own or operate a railroad as a common carrier.

The term “state,” when applied to different parts of the United States, shall, when used in any statute, extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories created or recognized by congress.

The term “crime,” when used in any statute, shall mean any violation of law liable to punishment by criminal prosecution.

The term “stationery,” as applied to purchases for the state, includes everything properly so called.

The term “sworn,” when used in any statute, shall include the word “affirmed,” in all cases where by law an affirmation may be substituted for an oath.

The term “United States,” when used in any statute, shall include the District of Columbia and the territories, as well as the states of the union.

The term “unsound mind,” when used in any statute in reference to persons, shall include persons with an intellectual disability, persons with mental illness, and persons non compos mentis.

Whenever the term “ward” is used, it shall be liberally construed and held to include any and all persons under every form of legal disability, including, but not limited to, the disabilities of minority, intellectual disability, mental illness, unsound mind, alcoholism, addictio…

The term “will,” when used in any statute, shall include codicils.

The term “written,” when used in any statute, may include, but is not limited to, printing, engraving, and lithographing. In all cases where the signature of any person is required by law, it shall always be the proper handwriting of such person, or, in case he be unable to write…

The term “year,” when used in any statute, means a calendar year, unless a contrary intention be expressed.

All words and phrases contained in the statutes are used according to their common and ordinary acceptation and meaning; but technical words and phrases according to their technical meaning.

When process shall be required to be served or notice given any number of days, the day of the act, event or default from which the designated period of time begins to run shall not be included. The last day of the period so computed shall be included unless it is a Saturday, a S…

When publication shall be required to be made in some newspaper “for three (3) weeks,” such publication shall be made once each week for three (3) successive weeks, and the time within which the noticed party is required to act or within which the noticing party may proceed shall…

The term “drugs,” when used in any statute, shall embrace all medicines for internal or external use for man or beast.

In each and every statute of this state heretofore enacted, and now in effect, in which the phrase “kindred within the third degree” or “relationship within the third degree” is used, and in which no other rule is applied or indicated, the civil law rule in computing relationship…

The civil law rule of computing kinship or relationship is hereby adopted and shall hereafter control in this state where the computation of relationship or kinship, either by blood or marriage, is brought in question in construing any legislative enactment or statutory law in th…

All petitions presented to any governing body of the State of Mississippi, or any of its subdivisions, or municipalities thereof, must be signed personally by each petitioner; otherwise, said signature shall not be counted as a valid signature of such petition.

When any petition is filed by qualified electors of a county or municipality requesting a vote on matters affecting all or any portion of a county or municipality, the certifying official shall post a list of all names disqualified from the petition and the reason for disqualific…

If any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase or any part of any act passed hereafter is declared to be unconstitutional or void, or if for any reason is declared to be invalid or of no effect, the remaining sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases or parts thereof…

(1) Except as otherwise provided in Section 1-1-109, whenever the same section of law is amended by different bills during the same session of the Legislature and the effective dates of the amendments to that section of law as specified in the bills are on different dates, the ve…

(1) “Caption” means the words used to describe the substance of a title, chapter, article, subarticle, part or section of the Mississippi Code of 1972. (2) Captions shall not constitute a part of the Mississippi Code of 1972 unless specifically so provided by law. (3) The wording…

(1) “Female” means an individual who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident, the reproductive system that at some point produces eggs. (2) “Male” means an individual who naturally has, had, will have, or wou…

The term “artificial intelligence” means a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments. Artificial intelligence systems use machine- and human-based inputs to p…

The term “established” or “hereafter established” when used in any legislative act or municipal ordinance or resolution shall mean with reference to time the date at which the plant, building or structure referred to has progressed to that degree of completion as to be ready for …