Drug dealing near church

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi appellate court upheld the 50-year sentence of a young Black woman on her first offense: She pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine within 1,500 feet of a church. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it did not conduct an evidentiary hearing, holds the appeals panel, and the trial court made no error in dismissing her post-conviction request for discovery because her claims were “manifestly without merit.”