COLUMBUS, Miss.–It’s very important that police go exactly by the book and make sure when they reada prisoner his rights that he understands them fully Apparently the state Supreme Court feels that did not happen in the case of Toney Jennings of Lowndes County.
Thursday the court ordered a new trial for Jennings, who was convicted in 2013 for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 2010.
The reason for the new trial: The court said there was no proof that Jennings understood, or even responded to anything the police read him about his rights. Therefore, anything he said to them was not voluntary.
The means the guilty verdict and the 15-year sentence, with five suspended, are null and void.
