DocketNumber: No. 2018-OK-0156
Citation Numbers: 263 So. 3d 1148
Filed Date: 2/13/2019
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/29/2022
*1149Writ granted. Respondent pleaded guilty to murder in 1959 for an offense he committed as a juvenile and was sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for the balance of his natural life. At that time, the crime of murder was not differentiated into degrees. In Miller v. Alabama ,
Giving Miller retroactive effect, moreover, does not require States to relitigate sentences, let alone convictions, in every case where a juvenile offender received mandatory life without parole. A State may remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by resentencing them.
Montgomery , 577 U.S. at ----,
Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, any person serving a sentence of life imprisonment who was under the age of eighteen years at the time of the commission of the offense, except for a person serving a life sentence for a conviction of first degree murder ( R.S. 14:30 ) or second degree murder ( R.S. 14:30.1 ), shall be eligible for parole consideration pursuant to the provisions of this Subsection if all of the following conditions have been met ....
Respondent is a person serving a sentence of life imprisonment who was under the age of eighteen years at the time of the commission of the offense. Therefore, he shall be eligible for parole consideration pursuant to the provisions of the subsection (when all of the conditions enumerated in that subsection are met). The exception for a person convicted of first or second degree murder does not apply to him because he pleaded guilty to murder before the legislature in 1973 divided the crime of murder in Louisiana into separate offenses of first and second degree murder. See State ex rel. Jenkins v. State , 17-0302 (La. 8/31/18),
Therefore, we grant the state's writ application and reverse the trial court's grant of mitigation funding. However, we also direct the Department of Corrections to revise respondent's prison master record to reflect that his sentence is not without benefit of parole. Further, the Department is directed to revise respondent's prison master record according to the criteria in La.R.S. 15:574.4(D)(1) to reflect an eligibility date for consideration by the committee *1150on parole pursuant to La.R.S. 15:574.4(D)(2), (3).
Crichton, J., additionally concurs and assigns reasons.
CRICHTON, J., additionally concurs and assigns reasons:
As I have noted previously, adversarial proceedings are the norm in our system of criminal justice, while ex parte proceedings are the disfavored exception that may be invoked in good faith only in very limited circumstances. See State v. Brown , 16-0274 (La. 4/22/16),