Jones v. Mississippi
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 22, 2021 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- April 22, 2021
- Term
- October Term 2020
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kavanaugh
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2020 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus JONES v. MISSISSIPPI CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MISSISSIPPI No. 18–1259. Argued November 3, 2020—Decided April 22, 2021 A Mississippi jury convicted petitioner Brett Jones of murder for killing his grandfather. Jones was 15 years old when he committed the crime. Under Mississippi law at the time, murder carried a mandatory sen- tence of life without parole. The trial judge duly imposed that sen- tence, which was affirmed on direct appeal. This Court subsequently decided Miller v. Alabama, 567 U. S. 460 , which held that the Eighth Amendment permits a life-without-parole sentence for a defendant who committed a homicide when he or she was under 18, but only if the sentence is not mandatory and the sentencer therefore has discre- tion to impose a lesser punishment. In the wake of that decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered that Jones be resentenced in ac- cordance with Miller. At the resentencing, the…
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