State v. Thomas

EZELL, Judge.

Defendant Frederick Thomas, then seventeen years old, pled guilty to second degree murder in 1974 and received a sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence for the first twenty years. A subsequent change in the law ended his parole eligibility.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama , 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), that a juvenile convicted for homicide cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole unless mitigating factors are considered. On June 18, 2013, Defendant filed a motion…