[responsivevoice_button]

In a divided opinion, the Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld Allen Russell’s sentence of life without parole for the nonviolent offense of possessing 43.7 grams of marijuana, after rejecting his argument that the punishment does not fit the crime.

Police arrested Mr. Russell in November 2017 after raiding his apartment and finding a pair of jeans containing 43.7 grams of marijuana.

In Mississippi the offense is punishable by up to 3 years in prison, although possession of marijuana is not a crime in 17 states, Washington D.C., and Guam. Prosecutors argued that he should be sentenced to die in prison under Mississippi’s violent habitual offender statute, requiring a life-without-parole for each person who has been convicted twice previously of any felony if at least one of them was a “crime of violence.”

None of Mr. Russell’s prior convictions was defined as a violent crime, but in 2014 state lawmakers defined burglary, one of Russell’s previous convictions, as a “per se crime of violence.”

That change in law subjected Mr. Russell to a life-without-parole sentence as a “violent habitual offender” for the nonviolent crime of possessing less than two ounces of marijuana.

Mississippi’s habitual offender law puts sentencing discretion in the hands of prosecutors, leaving courts with no option but to “rubber stamp” the sentence sought by the State-even if it dramatically exceeds the severity of the crime.

We would like to thank the Equal Justice Initiative for the content. Please click HERE for the entire comprehensive article.