Defendant asks US Supreme Court to halt attempted murder retrial in New Albany

Less than six months before a scheduled retrial, attorneys for a north Mississippi man acquitted by a judge in 2023 for stabbing a customer in the neck at a New Albany restaurant are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to look at double jeopardy issues in the case. 

Attorneys for Lane Mitchell argue that another trial for attempted first-degree murder would violate the Fifth Amendment clause protecting defendants from being tried twice for the same crime. 

The legal team argues that Mitchell’s case is the proper vehicle for the high court to provide clarification and uniformity about a fundamental tenet of constitutional law. The Mississippi Court of Appeals issued a 5-4 ruling in July 2025 allowing Mitchell to be retried, which also found the acquittal was not based on the evidence.

“Clarification on this question is necessary to ensure that the constitutional finality of an acquittal does not vary with the vocabulary of the trial judge or the characterization supplied by a reviewing state court,” Mitchell’s attorneys wrote in the 93-page petition.  

The state waived its right to respond to Mitchell’s petition. 

The Supreme Court justices are set to consider Mitchell’s case at a Nov. 13 conference, a private meeting in which they vote whether to take on a case for review. Only a small fraction of certiorari writs are accepted by the court. 

Mitchell is set to be retried in March in Union County Circuit Court.

His attorneys ask whether the double jeopardy clause permits a second trial after the following circumstances unfolded during Mitchell’s trial:

• A jury was sworn in.
• Both sides rested their case.
• The trial judge entered a judgment of acquittal based on constitutional violations determined by facts established at trial. 
• The trial judge didn’t separately state the prosecution’s evidence was legally insufficient.

The victim, Tennessee resident Russell Rogers, was not present at trial. The week leading up to trial, attorneys from the defense and prosecution sent subpoenas to Rogers to come to court. 

Rogers’ father, who was appointed as his conservator after the stabbing, obtained an order from the Tennessee probate court to block the defense’s subpoena, stating that Rogers’ mental health from the attack made him incapable of testifying. 

 In court records, the defense team and Union County Circuit Judge Kent Smith said Rogers “appear(ed) to be intentionally unavailable” to testify at trial because of the conservator, who the court deemed part of the prosecution. 

The prosecution proceeded with the belief that Rogers would testify, even though he did not. Mitchell testified in his defense, and both sides rested. 

Before the case went to the jury for deliberation, Smith removed the case from the group, issuing an acquittal and dismissing the charge against Mitchell. The judge cited violations of his constitutional rights, including the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to confront an accuser: Rogers.  

“This procedural posture matters,” Mitchell’s attorneys wrote in the petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The attorneys argue also that the Mississippi Court of Appeals decision conflicts with how the U.S. Supreme Court, constitutional text, history and tradition consider acquittals final. 

After Smith dismissed Mitchell’s charge, prosecutors appealed. Before trial, the Mississippi attorney general’s office appointed prosecutors because the local district attorney recused himself. Those prosecutors argued that Mitchell’s acquittal would set a precedent of dismissing “every criminal cause when a recalcitrant victim refuses to appear at trial.”

The Mississippi Court of Appeals considered the trial court’s ruling a dismissal based on violation of the compulsory process rather than an acquittal that determined guilt or innocence, which got around double jeopardy concerns. A slim majority said the state had the right to appeal and Smith was incorrect to dismiss the charge, leading the court to reverse the acquittal and return the case to Union County for a new trial. 

From that ruling, Mitchell appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing the state couldn’t appeal and retrial would violate double jeopardy protections. The court initially agreed to review the appeal, but this year the justices dismissed that review.

The case dates back to a Feb. 9, 2019, stabbing at the Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant in New Albany. 

Rogers, a regular customer of the restaurant, had been there for several hours when then-18 year-old Mitchell arrived and joined his parents and their friends in the bar area. Witnesses testified about Rogers’ behavior earlier in the day and how he seemed to make a young waitress feel uncomfortable. 

Video of the incident presented in court and included in court records shows Mitchell taking a knife from the bar and holding it behind his back as Rogers talked to a waitress. Mitchell’s father, who worked at the restaurant, talked with Rogers, who moved toward him. That prompted Mitchell to approach Rogers from behind and stab him in the neck three times. 

Mitchell testified at trial and argued in court filings that he believed Rogers had a gun and was going to harm his father. A gun was not found in Rogers’ possession.

Rogers’ injuries nearly killed him and resulted in a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and mental issues, which months later led to the appointment of a conservator, his father Bob Rogers. 

A civil lawsuit filed in 2020 led to years of litigation revolving around access to Rogers’ medical records related to the stabbing that were contained in the lawsuit. The lawsuit was settled the same year and a protective order was issued, directing confidential information and copies to be returned or destroyed.