Jermaine White a/k/a Debow v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Jermaine White's convictions for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, the court held a rational jury could find deliberate design where White, the only person to enter and leave the motel room alive, shot the two victims a combined nineteen times, and empty magazines and fifteen spent shell casings supported the inference that he reloaded and kept firing; deliberate design may be formed very quickly and may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon. The court further held the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a new trial, and it rejected White's lesser-included-offense-instruction argument as waived because he had successfully objected to the second-degree-murder instruction below and could not 'cry error' on appeal.