STATE v. MORGAN (2026)

BACKGROUND

In 1997, a jury found relator, Darrell Morgan, guilty of first-degree murder. After the jury deadlocked at the penalty phase, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. This Court affirmed the conviction and sentence on appeal. State v. Morgan, 97-2057 (La. App. 4 Cir. 5/26/99), 739 So.2d 1027 (unpub'd). Relator has filed numerous prior post-conviction pleadings following which he sought appellate review in this Court, none of which yielded substantive relief.

On July 10, 2026, the district court received relator's most-recent post-conviction pleading, entitled a Memorandum in Support of Motion Alleging Jurisdictional Defects in the Indictment, which the district court denied on July 24, 2026. Relator then filed a motion for rehearing, which the district court denied on August 13, 2026. The instant writ application seeking review in this Court followed on September 8, 2026.

DISCUSSION

Our review of the district court's ruling reflects that it correctly denied relief. The district court denied relief on the merits, finding that “the indictment clearly gave Mr. Morgan fair notice of the offense for which he was charged and did not create the ambiguity he alleges.” To the extent that relator complained about a defect in the charging document, that complaint was waived by his failure to pursue the issue before the trial court and/or by an appeal. See La. C.Cr.P. art. 841; La. C.Cr.P. art. 930.4. Moreover, the prescriptive period set forth in La. C.Cr.P. art. 930.8 bars substantive consideration of his complaint(s). Nothing in relator's application suggests that his claims in the district court fell into any of the exceptions set forth in La. C.Cr.P. art. 930.8(A) and the prescriptive period bars its substantive consideration. See also State ex rel. Morgan v. State, 2017-0826 (La. 8/3/18), 250 So.3d 255. Accordingly, this writ is denied.

WRIT DENIED

Judge Daniel L. Dysart