Mississippi Advisory Opinions January 06, 1983: 19830106 (January 06, 1983)

Advisory Opinion Text

Honorable Ralph Brown

Circuit Clerk

Scott County

Post Office Box 371

Forest, Mississippi 39074

Elections: Qualification of Candidates

Dear Mr. Brown:

Attorney General Allain has received your letter of request and has assigned it to me for research and reply.

Your letter states:

“Please find enclosed a copy to restore the rights of suffrage on this particular individual.

“This office requests that your office give us a written opinion on whether or not this includes his rights to run and hold a public office of trust.”

Section 250, Mississippi Constitution of 1890, provides:

“All qualified electors and no others shall be eligible to office, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution; provided, however, that as to an office where no other qualification than that of being a qualified elector is provided by this Constitution, the legislature may, by law, fix additional qualifications for such office.”

Section 44 of that Constitution provides:

“No person shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the legislature, or to any office of profit or trust , who shall have been convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime; and any person who shall have been convicted of giving or offering, directly, or indirectly, any bribe to procure his election or appointment, “any any person who shall give or offer any bribe to procure the election or appointment of any person to office, shall, on conviction thereof, be disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust under the laws of this state.” (Emphasis added)

In response to your inquiry, although an individual who has been convicted of a crime in Mississippi may once again become a qualified elector by an act of the legislature, he must still meet the additional qualifications imposed by Section 44, supra , and all statutes which are applicable to the particular office he seeks in order to be eligible to hold an office of trust in Mississippi.

Please see the enclosed copy of the case styled State Ex Rel. Muirhead v. State Bd. of Elec. Com'rs , 259 So.2d 698 (1972), in which the Mississippi Supreme Court addresses the general subject of your inquiry.

Very truly yours,

Bill Allain, Attorney General.