Echols v. Thomas

Fletcher, Justice.

The trial court sentenced Curtis L. Echols, Jr., to life imprisonment after he pled guilty to armed robbery. Echols filed a petition for habeas corpus contending that the state’s general sentencing statute did not authorize a life sentence for armed robbery. Both state and federal habeas courts denied his petition. In certifying its state-law question to this court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals requested that we address whether the trial court had the authority under Georgia sentencing statutes to impose a life sentence on Echols for armed robbery. We answer yes to…