The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down one opinion on Thursday. It was a 5-4 split over whether the petitioner who was sentenced to mandatory life without parole as a minor before Miller had a statutory right to be resentenced by a jury.
Dampier v. State, 2021-CT-00280-SCT (Civil – PCR)
Affirming sentence of life without parole after the trial could conducted a hearing and considered the Miller factors, holding that there was no statutory right to be resentenced by a jury under section 99-19-101(1) under the facts of this case.
(5-4: Coleman dissented, joined by Kitchens, King, and Ishee)
NOTE – The majority provided some procedural clarification:
The dissent took issue with the fact that a jury had never weighed the applicable statutory aggravating and mitigating factors:
Other Orders
Manning v. State, 95-DP-00066-SCT (holding State’s motion to lift stay of execution, set execution date, and dismissing second successive PCR motion in abeyance until the Court rules on the petitioner’s motion for leave to file successive petition for PCR)
Galloway v. State, 2013-DR-01796 (denying motion to stay mandate pending cert; denying rehearing)
Parisie v. State, 2017-M-00685 (denying application for leave to proceed in the trial court pro se, finding the filing was frivolous, and waning that future frivolous filings could result in sanctions)
S.F. v. Lamar Cnty. Dept. of Child Protection Servs., 2021-CA-00466-SCT (denying rehearing)
Lewis v. State, 2021-CT-00472-SCT (denying cert)
Renfroe v. Parker, 2021-CT-01048-SCT (denying cert)
Herbert v. Herbert, 2021-CT-01291-SCT (dismissing cert petition)
Tran v. State, 2022-CT-00094-SCT (denying cert)
Wells v. State, 2022-CT-00157-SCT (denying cert)
Z.E.F. v. Lamar Cnty. Dept. of Child Protection Servs., 2022-CA-00695-SCT (denying rehearing)
Sanders v. Reeves, 2022-CT-01059-SCT (denying cert)
Madakasira v. Irby, 2023-M-00604-SCT (denying petition for interlocutory appeal)
Mississippi Appeals Blog 