Title 99, Criminal Procedure

(1) As a condition of any probation, community control, payment plan for any fine imposed or any other court ordered supervision, the court may order the posting of a bond to secure the appearance of the defendant at any subsequent court proceeding or to otherwise enforce the ord…

(a) A bail bond and the obligation thereunder is discharged and becomes null and void when:(a) The defendant is found guilty and sentence is pronounced;(b) The charge is dismissed or nolle prosequi;(c) The charge is retired or remanded to the files;(d) The defendant is surrendere…

All bonds and recognizances taken for the appearance of any party, either as defendant, prosecutor, or witness in any criminal proceeding or matter, shall be made payable to the state, and shall have the effect to bind the accused and his sureties on the bond or recognizance unti…

Bail may be given to the sheriff or officer holding the defendant in custody, by a fidelity or surety insurance company authorized to act as surety within the State of Mississippi. Any such company may execute the undertaking as surety by the hand of officer or attorney authorize…

(1) In addition to any type of bail allowed by statute, any committing court, in its discretion, may allow any defendant, to whom bail is allowable, to deposit cash as bail bond in lieu of a surety or property bail bond, by depositing such cash sum as the court may direct with th…

Offenses at common law, indictable and punishable by special statutory provision, may be indicted as described or charged according to the common law or according to the statute, and, on conviction, the offenders shall be punished as prescribed.

The concurrence of twelve of the grand jurors shall be necessary to the finding of an indictment or making a presentment.

The clerk of the circuit court shall, within ten days after the adjournment of each term of court, record the indictments returned into court in a well-bound book to be kept for that purpose which shall be styled “Secret Record of Indictments,” and which shall be properly indexed…

An indictment returned into the clerk of the circuit court, shall not be inspected by any person but the judge, clerk, district attorney, and sheriff, until the defendant shall have been arrested or has entered into bail or recognizance for the offense.

A plea in abatement, or other dilatory plea to an indictment, shall not be received, unless the same be verified by the oath of the defendant.

An indictment or information shall not be abated by reason of any misnomer or dilatory plea; but in such case the court shall forthwith cause the same to be amended according to the proof, and proceed as though such plea had not been pleaded; and an indictment shall not be held i…

(1) Two (2) or more offenses which are triable in the same court may be charged in the same indictment with a separate count for each offense if: (a) the offenses are based on the same act or transaction; or (b) the offenses are based on two (2) or more acts or transactions conne…

All objections to an indictment for a defect appearing on the face thereof, shall be taken by demurrer to the indictment, and not otherwise, before the issuance of the venire facias in capital cases, and before the jury shall be impaneled in all other cases, and not afterward. Th…

All objections to an indictment for any defect dehors the face thereof, presenting an issue to be tried by the court, shall be taken by motion to quash the indictment, and not otherwise, within the time allowed for demurrer, and with the right to amend, as provided in the last pr…

If any indictment describes a defendant as a person whose name is to the jurors unknown, and it afterward appears that at the time of finding the bill his name was known, the court may order the indictment to be amended according to the fact.

In an indictment for gambling or gaming it shall be sufficient to charge the general name or description of the game at which the defendant may have played, without setting forth or describing with or against whom he may have bet or played; and an objection shall not be sustained…

An indictment for a violation of any of the provisions of Chapter 31 of Title 97, Mississippi Code of 1972, entitled “Intoxicating Beverage Offenses” shall not be quashed or abated for want of form, and it shall not be necessary to aver the particular kind of liquors sold. In any…

The words “force and arms” or the words “contrary to the form of the statute,” or any other merely formal or technical words, shall not be necessary in an indictment if, without them, the offense be certainly and substantially described.

(1) In indictments for larceny or embezzlement of money or evidences of debt it shall be sufficient to describe the property in general terms, as “money,” “bank-notes,” “checks,” “bills of exchange,” “promissory notes,” and the like, of or about a certain amount and of certain va…

An indictment for libel need not set forth any extrinsic facts to show the application of the defamatory matter charged in the indictment to the party libeled, but it shall be sufficient to charge generally that the same was published of or concerning him, and the fact that it wa…

An indictment for any of the crimes defined in Sections 97-33-31 to 97-33-49, Mississippi Code of 1972, being those sections concerning lotteries and raffles, shall be good which charges the crime in the language of the statute, without setting forth therein the number or date of…

(1) In an indictment for homicide it shall not be necessary to set forth the manner in which or the means by which the death of the deceased was caused, but it shall be sufficient to charge in an indictment for murder, that the defendant did feloniously, willfully, and of his mal…

In an indictment for perjury it shall be sufficient to set forth the substance of the offense charged upon the defendant – that he was sworn or testified on oath, and before what court, or before whom the oath or affirmation was taken; averring the court or person to have had com…

In an indictment for subornation of perjury it shall be sufficient to set forth the substance of the offense charged upon the defendant, without setting forth the bill, answer, information, or any part of the record or proceeding, either in law or equity, and without setting fort…

An indictment for any offense shall not be insufficient for omitting to state the time at which the offense was committed in any case where time is not of the essence of the offense, nor for stating the time imperfectly, nor for stating the offense to have been committed on a day…

Whenever it shall be necessary to make an averment in an indictment as to any instrument, whether the same consists wholly or in part in writing, print, figures, or characters, it shall be sufficient to describe such instrument by any name or designation by which the same may be …

All indictments and the report of the grand jury must be presented to the clerk of the circuit court by the foreman of the grand jury or by a member of such jury designated by the foreman, with the foreman’s name endorsed thereon, accompanied by his affidavit that all indictments…

The process for arrest on an indictment shall be a capias, which shall be issued immediately on the return of the indictment into court, and made returnable instanter, unless otherwise ordered by the court, and if the capias be not returned executed, the clerk shall issue an alia…

The first process, in all criminal causes, and in all courts, to compel the attendance of a witness, shall be a subpoena, directed to the sheriff or to some proper officer of the county where the witness may reside, stating the time and place for the appearance of the witness, th…

Any commissioner or other person appointed, or to whom a commission may be directed, by any court without the limits of this state, to take the deposition of any witness residing or being in this state, shall have power to issue subpoenas for the witness to be examined, returnabl…

If, during the session of any circuit court, there shall be wanted in any case or matter before the court, or before the grand jury, a witness who resides or may be found in any county within the state, and within one hundred (100) miles of the place where the court is being held…

Subpoenas shall be served personally as a summons is required to be served, and the person so subpoenaed shall appear.

If any person subpoenaed as a witness shall fail to appear and attend as required, an attachment shall be issued by order of the court or other authority before which he was subpoenaed to appear, returnable at such time as the court or authority may appoint. The court or authorit…

Every witness subpoenaed in any criminal case, shall attend, from day to day, and from term to term without further notice, until discharged by the court or by the party at whose instance he was subpoenaed, and in default thereof he shall be fined by the court not more than five …

Any district attorney or conservator of the peace may apply to the clerk of the circuit court in vacation for writs of subpoena for any witness to attend before the grand jury. It shall be the duty of the clerk to issue all subpoenas thus applied for, and it shall be the duty of …

In all cases where process to bring witnesses before the grand jury shall be executed, and the witness shall fail to attend, the clerk shall, on the order of the judge or application of the district attorney or any member of the grand jury, issue an attachment for such witness, r…

Sections 99-9-27 through 99-9-35 may be cited as “uniform law to secure the attendance of witnesses from without the state in criminal cases.”

“Witness” as used in Sections 99-9-27 through 99-9-35 shall include a person whose testimony is relevant and material and desired in any proceeding or investigation by a grand jury or in a criminal action, prosecution or proceeding. “State” as used in Sections 99-9-27 through 99-…

When an indictment shall be found against a corporation, a summons shall be issued against it, by its corporate name, to appear and answer the indictment, which summons may be executed as a summons against a corporation in a civil suit; and upon the summons being returned execute…

If a judge of a court of record in any state which by its laws has made provision for commanding persons within that state to attend and testify in this state, certifies under the seal of such court that there is a criminal prosecution pending in such court, or that a grand jury …

If a person in any state, which by its laws has made provision for commanding persons within its borders to attend and testify in criminal prosecutions, or grand jury investigations commenced or about to commence, in this state, is a material witness in a prosecution pending in a…

If a person comes into this state in obedience to a summons directing him to attend and testify in this state, he shall not, while in this state pursuant to such summons or order, be subject to arrest or the service of process, civil or criminal, in connection with matters which …

Sections 99-9-27 to 99-9-35 shall be so interpreted and construed as to effectuate their general purpose to make uniform the law of the states which enact them.

If the summons be returned not executed, and the officer shall make affidavit that he hath made diligent inquiry and cannot ascertain any place of business of the corporation in the county, or the name of any officer of the corporation, resident in the county in which such indict…

If it be made known to the court, by affidavit of any credible person, as required in suits in chancery against non-residents, that the defendant corporation is non-resident, or cannot be found in this state, it shall order said corporation to cause its appearance to be entered, …

Process and proceedings like those described in Sections 99-9-3 through 99-9-7 may be had before justices of the peace in a prosecution or proceeding against a corporation for any offense cognizable before a justice of the peace. In case publication be necessary, the day of appea…