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MISSISSIPPIAN THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
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The bell tolls on Rebels in Egg Bowl defeat BY JOHN HOLT The Daily Mississippian
In what could have been a positive end to a disappointing season, Ole Miss fell 31-23 to in-state rival No. 25 Mississippi State Saturday night in the Egg Bowl at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. It marked the second-straight Egg Bowl win for the Bulldogs (8-4, 4-4 SEC) and their first in Oxford since 1998. “MSU had a great defense tonight,” UM coach Houston Nutt said. “Our offense did not do enough to help our defense when they were playing well. That has been our story this year. That is what makes it tough. When our defense is on target, our offense isn’t. We didn’t capitalize on turnovers and opportunities like we should have.” Mississippi State’s offensive duo of quarterback Chris Relf and redshirt freshman running back LaDarius Perkins powered the Bulldogs to victory. Relf threw for a careerhigh 288 yards and three touchdowns while Perkins tallied 319 all-purpose yards along with two second-quarter scores. Ole Miss (4-8, 1-7 SEC) led 9-7 in the second quarter, but
The Daily Mississippian
David Jackson Williams’ appeals attorney, David Hill, said it was the correct legal decision for the Mississippi Supreme Court to overturn Williams’ 2007 murder conviction and allow him a new trial. Hill said the original trial attorney was not allowed to offer the jury that Demetria Bracey, whom Williams was convicted of killing, had killed herself in a suicide pact she entered into with Williams, a pact that Williams was unable to complete. “It is the correct decision, applying the established legal principles to the facts of this case,” Hill said. “The jury should have been instructed and given guidance by the court in their ability to define assisted suicide.” Hill said if the jury had been given this guidance, the evidence
UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
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UM THEATER: A CHRISTMAS CAROL Kick off the holiday season by taking the whole family to see Dickins’s classic holiday tale....with a dark twist. Adapted and Directed by Dex Edwards December 2 - December 4 at 8 p.m., $7.50 - $10.50
ADDISON DENT | The Daily Mississippian
Ole Miss linebacker DT Shackelford tries to tackle Mississippi State running back LaDarius Perkins during the third quarter of the Rebels’ 31-23 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday. The Ole Miss defense gave up nearly 250 yards of total offense to Perkins.
Mississippi State would go on to score 24 unanswered points to take a 31-9 lead with 2:49 remaining in the third quarter. But on senior day, the Rebels wouldn’t go away without a fight. “Thinking about your last time walking through the tun-
nel, thinking about your last time being with the guys on the field, it’s real emotional,” senior cornerback Jeremy McGee said. Ole Miss narrowed the Bulldogs’ lead to eight with 4:21 to play when senior quarterback Jeremiah Masoli threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to
wide receiver Ja-Mes Logan. Masoli completed 24 of 44 passes for 261 yards in his final collegiate game. “I don’t regret anything that happened this year,” Masoli said. “I’m just glad Coach Nutt gave me the chance again. This is my family.”
could have supported giving Williams, who is currently serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary, a lesser offense of assisted suicide. Presiding Justice George Carlson said during Williams’ hearing that a hypothetical juror could find Williams guilty of the lesser offense, based on seven pieces of evidence. Evidence included conflicting expert testimony as to whether Bracey committed suicide; Bracey and Williams were depressed, romantically involved individuals who entered into a suicide pact; Williams had assisted Bracey’s plan by getting all of her money out of her back account, so her mother could access it upon her death; Williams had purchased beer to aid in the suicide pact; the two had been hiding in Williams’ apartment days before the act; Williams had provided the kitchen knives; Williams said Bracey stabbed herself.
In his dissent, Chief Justice William L. Waller said he saw no evidence to support the assistedsuicide instruction requested by Williams. “Even viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to Williams, no reasonable jury could find him guilty of assisting suicide ‘without resorting to speculation or conjecture’ as to the meaning of the evidence,” Waller said. Waller said Williams had to demonstrate that Bracey committed suicide and that he helped her. “The only evidence Williams presented at trial to support his assisted-suicide theory was that he and Bracey had formed a mutual agreement to commit suicide together — a suicide pact,” Waller said. “The plain meaning of a suicide pact — a mutual agreement to die at the same time — does not suggest encouragement or assistance of suicide as contemplated by (the law).”
inside SPORTS
DEFENSE THE SAME FOR REBELS
See DEFEAT, PAGE 3
Attorney in overturned ‘05 murder trial says judge made correct decision BY CAIN MADDEN
this week
Waller also said because there was strong evidence of the murder charge, Williams was not entitled to a jury instruction on the lesser offense, assisted suicide. The Court of Appeals, which found no evidence to warrant the assisted suicide statute in April, had a similar reading of the law to Waller, but Carlson said the Court of Appeals applied the facts of this case in too narrow a manner to the broad language of the assisted-suicide statute. The law, in Mississippi Code Section 97-3-19(1)(a)(Rev. 2006) states that a person who willfully, or in any manner, advises, encourages, abets or assists another person to take, or in taking, the latter’s life, or in attempting to take the latter’s life, is guilty of a felony. Being convicted of murder is a life sentence in Mississippi, while being guilty of assisted suicide carries a maximum of a 10-year sentence.
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