Michael Joseph Johnson a/k/a Michael J. Johnson a/k/a Michael Johnson v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The court affirmed the denial of Johnson's post-conviction challenge to his parole-ineligible life sentence for a murder committed shortly before his eighteenth birthday. It held that the amended sentencing statutes required a judge, rather than a jury, to resentence a juvenile convicted before July 1, 2024, and that the trial court properly applied the required youth-related factors before retaining parole ineligibility. The court found no legal error or abuse of discretion in the trial court's case-specific determination.