U.S. Supreme Court denies Brett Jones appeal
Apr. 22—Brett Jones, who was convicted of killing his Lee County grandfather when he was 15, will not get a new chance at freedom.
The Supreme Court of the United States said in a 6-3 decision that the state of Mississippi was not required to find a teen "permanently incorrigible" before sentencing them to life in prison without the chance of parole.
The opinion, written by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said a separate factual finding of permanent incorrigibility was not necessary before sentencing a murderer under 18 to life without parole. He added that this opinion did not change two previous Supreme Court rulings that prevent states from sentencing youthful offenders to life without parole.
"The resentencing in Jones's case complied with (those rulings) because the sentencer had discretion to impose a sentence less than life without parole in light of Jones's youth," Kavanaugh wrote. "The Court's decision today should not be construed as agreement or disagreement with Jones's sentence."
Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Barrett joined the opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a separate concurring opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
Because of the ruling, Jones, now 31, will have to wait another 29 years before he has any hope of being released from prison. Under state law, a prisoner sentenced to life without parole has to wait until they turn 60 before they can be considered for conditional release.
Jones was not appealing the 2005 murder conviction, which has been upheld by state courts. Instead, he appealed the sentence of life without parole. A ruling in his favor could have set a legal precedent and changed the way young offenders are sentenced when charged as adults.
Jones has spent more of his life behind bars than free. He was 15 when he was arrested in August 2004 for the stabbing death of his 68-year-old grandfather. He remained in a county jail until he was convicted of murder in 2005 and was sentenced to life without parole. He has been in a state prison ever since.
A federal court ruling that a mandatory life without parole sentence for a juvenile is cruel and unusual gave Jones his first shot at freedom. The Mississippi Supreme Court vacated Jones' sentence in the summer of 2013 and ordered a resentencing.
In making his April 2015 resentencing decision, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Gardner noted that the jury rejected the notion of self-defense and considered the lesser charge of manslaughter before finding Jones guilty of murder in 2005. The judge then sentenced him to life in prison.
In a split decision in December 2017, the Mississippi Court of Appeals voted 7-2 to uphold the circuit court ruling that denied Jones parole. The dissenting judges brought up noted that Jones had not been ruled "permanently incorrigible" and therefore not eligible for parole.
The following summer, the state supreme court reviewed the case. In November 2018, the Mississippi the high court in a 5-4 split decision ruled there was no need for further review.
Jones appealed his case to the nation's highest court in 2020 and his attorneys presented oral arguments before the Supreme Court in November 2020.
