Mr. Morris Thigpen
Office of the Attorney GeneralJune 6, 1984
1984 WL 61774 (Miss.A.G.)
Office of the Attorney General
State of Mississippi
*1 June 6, 1984
*1 Mr. Morris Thigpen
*1 Commissioner of Corrections
*1 723 North President Street
*1 Jackson, Mississippi 39202
Dear Mr. Thigpen:
*1 Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your request for an opinion dated May 18, 1984 and has assigned it to the undersigned for research and reply.
*1 Your request for an opinion is broken down into two primary categories. The first request reads as follows:
*1 “1. May specific conditions of Probation, Parole, Work Release, Supervised Earned Release, and Gubernatorial Suspension be more restrictive than the specific requirements of the statutes governing these types of release?”
*1 It is the opinion of this office that we cannot respond to such a broad request unless we know what specific conditions of probation, parole, work release, supervised earned release, and/or gubernatorial suspension would attempt to be imposed which are more restrictive than the specific requirements of the statutes governing this type of cases. However, out of an abundance of caution, we would bring to your attention that § 47-7-3(2), as amended, and effective from and after July 1, 1982, together with the opinion of this office dated June 29, 1982, severely limit work release and supervised earned release.
*1 Your second inquiry states:
*1 “2. Specifically, Section 19-3-1 specifically defines a deadly weapon. However, the Division of Community Services Policy and Procedure prohibits an offender from possessing any weapon. Do Sections 97-37-1 and 97-37-5 allow a felon to be in possession of a rifle with a barrel length of 16 or greater inches and/or a shotgun with a barrel length of 18 or greater inches?”
*1 It is the opinion of this office that § 97-37-1 applies only to the weapons defined therein which are “concealed in whole or in part”. The Mississippi Supreme Court in the case of Jones v. State, 383 So.2d 498, appeared to have limited this section only to weapons described therein which are carried as “concealed”. Therefore, we do not believe that this section would apply to a felon in possession of a rifle with a barrel length of 16 inches or greater and/or a shotgun with a barrel length of 18 inches or greater. We would also point out that § 45-9-1 of the Mississippi Code (1972), as Annotated and Amended, provides that rifles with a velocity of more than two thousand (2,000) feet per second at the muzzle shall be registered and § 45-9-3 provides that registration shall be made with Sheriff of the county which the person owning or possessing same resides. Of course, the possession of a fire arm in the commission of a crime would fall in an entirely different category.
*1 “3. Would cross bows or bows and arrows constitute a deadly weapon.”
*1 It is the opinion of this office that cross-bows or bows and arrows would not constitute a deadly weapon under § 97-37-1 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, as Annotated and Amended, unless they were concealed in whole or in part.
*2 We trust that this sufficiently responds to your inquiry.
1984 WL 61774 (Miss.A.G.)
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