Mississippi Supreme Court Confirms Man’s Life Sentence for Marijuana Possession

A divided Supreme Courtroom of Mississippi upheld a prisoner’s sentence of life imprisonment for possession of marijuana below the state’s violent routine offender legislation.

The affirmation of the sentence comes as legal guidelines relating to marijuana are being loosened nationwide.

A Buffalo Regulation Evaluation article by Paul J. Larkin Jr. titled “Hashish Capitalism” from a 12 months in the past, factors out that at the moment, 36 states had medical marijuana packages and 14 states—plus the District of Columbia—now permit it for use recreationally.

Mississippi itself created a medical marijuana program when a state statute was signed into legislation on Feb. 2, 2022.

The defendant, Allen Russell, argued that the life sentence with out the opportunity of parole violated his proper below the Eighth Modification to the U.S. Structure to be free from merciless and strange punishment, alongside along with his constitutional proper to not be subjected to ex put up facto legal guidelines.

Article 1, Part 9 of the Structure forbids Congress from retroactively criminalizing conduct; Article 1, Part 10 of the Structure applies the identical prohibition to the states.

The Courtroom of Appeals stalemated in October 2019, voting 5–5 on his attraction, which had the impact of upholding the sentence.

On June 16, the Supreme Courtroom of Mississippi voted 6–3 to uphold the sentence below the routine offender provisions of the Mississippi Code.

“As a result of the trial choose adopted the legislation to the letter, we affirm,” the bulk opinion (pdf) written by Justice Robert P. Chamberlin acknowledged. “The trial choose didn’t have sentencing discretion on this case.”

In keeping with the opinion’s abstract of the details, Hattiesburg Police Division officers executed a search warrant at Russell’s dwelling and located 5 baggage of marijuana weighing 79.5 grams, or simply over 2.5 ounces.

A forensic evaluation decided the mixed weight of two of the luggage was 43.71 grams, so the remaining baggage weren’t examined as a result of the brink weight for a possession cost had already been met.

Russell was indicted on one depend of possessing greater than 30 grams however lower than 250 grams of marijuana and for being a violent routine offender below Mississippi Code Part 99-19-83.

A jury convicted Russell on the possession cost.

On the sentencing listening to, the trial court docket rejected Russell’s constitutional objections.

State prosecutors offered proof of his prior felony convictions—two for housebreaking of a dwelling and one for possession of a firearm whereas being a convicted felon.

The court docket discovered Russell was a violent routine offender and handed down the life sentence with out eligibility for probation or parole.

Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote in a separate concurring opinion that it was “pertinent to notice that the arrest got here whereas legislation enforcement was making an attempt to serve one other drug-related warrant on Russell in addition to execute a search warrant on his premises.”

The search warrant happened when Russell was investigated as a suspect in a homicide in a resort room by which a medical doc naming Russell was discovered, Randolph wrote.

Russell didn’t cooperate with police and “chemical gasoline needed to be deployed to acquire Russell’s give up,” the chief justice added.

All through his felony profession, Russell, who “isn’t any stranger to the felony justice system,” had been handled leniently by the courts.

“Russell has obtained a harsh punishment not as a result of he possessed a small quantity of marijuana, however as a result of he has repeatedly refused to abide by the legal guidelines enacted to guard all of the residents of our state,” Randolph wrote.

Justice Josiah Coleman wrote a dissenting opinion—joined by two justices—by which he instructed that Russell had been handled shabbily by the courts on this case.

A scarcity of authorized certainty exists relating to Russell’s felony historical past, Coleman wrote, declaring that “housebreaking was not thought of a per se crime of violence till” state legislation made it so on July 1, 2014.

Russell “pled responsible to 2 counts of housebreaking in 2004,” however earlier than the legislation was modified in 2014, “housebreaking was solely thought of against the law of violence if precise violence passed off in the course of the housebreaking.”

“We have no idea whether or not Russell’s burglaries concerned precise violence, however the truth that he was allowed the chance by the sentencing court docket to take part within the Regimented Inmate Self-discipline Program tends to point they didn’t.”

Coleman wrote he would have remanded the case to the trial court docket to re-examine the Eighth Modification difficulty and for re-sentencing.