Case Summary: Jones v. Mississippi

In Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), the Supreme Court held that a person who commits a homicide when he or she is under 18 may not be mandatorily sentenced to life without parole; the sentencing judge must have discretion to impose a lesser punishment. In Montgomery v. Louisiana, 577 U.S. 190 (2016), the Court held that Miller applies retroactively. When Montgomery was decided, I wondered (here) whether it did more than merely address Miller’s retroactive application. Language in the case indicated that a sentence of life without parole would be constitutionally permissible for only the most the most troubling young defendants—“those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.” Id. at 209. In Jones v. Mississippi, 593 U.S. ___ (2021), decided last week, the Court made clear that the Constitution does not require a sentencer to make a separate factual finding of permanent incorrigibility before sentencing a defendant to life without parole. Like so many homicide cases involving young defendants, the facts of Jones are troubling. In 2004, Brett Jones—age 15 at the time—stabbed his grandfather eight times after an argument, killing him. Jones didn’t call 911; he tried to cover up the crime and then fled. He was captured, charged with murder, and convicted. At the time, murder carried a mandatory sentence of life without parole (LWOP) in Mississippi, and that’s what Jones got. In 2012, in the wake of Miller, the Mississippi Supreme Court concluded that Jones’s mandatory LWOP sentence was unconstitutional and remanded the case for a resentencing hearing. [...]