Split Mississippi appellate court upholds, against Eighth Amendment challenge, an LWOP habitual-offender sentence for marijuana possession
As report in this AP piece, the Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a life sentence for a man convicted of a marijuana possession charge because he had previous convictions and those made him a habitual offender. Here is bit more about the ruling from the AP:
Allen Russell, 38, was sentenced to life in Forrest County in 2019 after a jury found him guilty of possession of more than 30 grams (1.05 ounces) of marijuana.
In Mississippi, a person can be sentenced to life without parole after serving at least one year in prison on two separate felonies, one of which must be a violent offense. Russell was convicted on two home burglaries in 2004 and for unlawful possession of a firearm in 2015. By law, burglary is a violent offense in Mississippi, whether or not there is proof that violence occurred. That was not the case when Russell was
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A man in Mississippi will continue to serve out a life sentence handed down to him for marijuana possession after the state’s Court of Appeals upheld the harsh term.
The court ruled on Tuesday that Allen Russell, 38, would see out the sentence handed to him in Forrest County because his previous convictions made him a repeat offender.
Russell received life imprisonment in 2019 after a jury found him guilty of possessing more than 30 grams (1.05 ounces) of the drug.
This week’s ruling comes as states across the US are softening laws around recreational marijuana use, often with an eye towards increasing racial equality. Black people are more than three times as likely to be arrested for marijuana infractions as white people, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mississippi Appeals Court Upholds 38-Year-Old Man’s Mandatory Life Sentence without Parole for Marijuana Possession Jerry Lambe
Allen Russell
The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a mandatory life sentence for a 38-year-old man convicted of marijuana possession, reasoning that his previous convictions made him a “violent habitual offender” under state law.
Allen Russell was sentenced to life in prison by a Mississippi circuit court in 2019 after a jury convicted him of possessing more than 30 grams of marijuana and prosecutors introduced evidence of his prior convictions during his sentencing hearing.
Under Mississippi law, a person convicted of two separate felonies at least one of which is violent and who serves at least one year in prison for each of those felony convictions “shall” be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility for probation or parole as a violent habitual offender.
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