The juveniles were apprehended and subsequently charged with the murder of Laurie Troup. Jackson had been convicted of both capital murder and aggravated robbery. However, when Jackson was sentenced, he was sentenced to life in prison on the capital murder conviction, but he was not sentenced on the robbery conviction. At the time the crime was committed Jackson had been fourteen years old. At the time of Jackson’s conviction, Arkansas law Ark.Code Ann. § 9-27-318(c)(2) (1998) allowed for certain juvenile crimes to be tried in adult court under the prosecutor’s discretion. In the case of Evan Miller, he too was fourteen when he committed the crime of capital murder during the course of arson alongside his codefendant Colby Smith on July 15, 2003. Evan Miller and Colby Smith on the night of July 15, 2003, the duo killed Miller’s neighbor by violently beating Cole Cannon with a baseball bat and setting Cannon’s trailer on fire after they beat and robbed him. Prior to the death of Cannon, Cannon had come to Miller’s trailer, where he stayed with his mother asking for something to eat, as he had burned up his food. While Cannon was waiting for Miller’s mother to fix spaghetti, Miller and Smith snuck off and went to Cannon’s trailer looking for drugs but did not find any; so they then returned to …show more content…
Alabama and Jackson v. State, both of the juveniles involved were fourteen years old at the time of their offenses. The states of Alabama and Arkansas both had given the prosecutors the right to charge the juveniles as adults. As a result of the felonious crimes, they were then charged accordingly and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Each juvenile subsequently appealed their convictions. Also, in both cases the mandatory minimum for the crimes when tried as an adult required that the courts sentence them to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Supreme Court respectively affirmed in their rulings of both Miller and Jackson on their appeals that their sentences would remain life imprisonment without the possibility of