State of Mississippi v. Boyce Willard

WILSON, J.,

FOR THE COURT:

■ ¶ 1. In 1984, Boyce Willard was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Since 1994, the Mississippi Parole Board has repeatedly denied him parole. In 2015, Willard filed a petition for post-conviction relief in the Humphreys County Circuit Court. Willard’s petition alleged that the Parole Board violated Mississippi Code Annotated section 47-7-18(6) (Rev. 2015) by imposing a five-year “setoff’ (i.e., delay) until his next parole hearing. Section 47-7-18(6), which went into effect on July 1, 2014, provides in part that “[a]ny inmate not released at the…