More on the Supreme Court’s New JLWOP Case

RJ Vogt has this story for Lexis’s Law 360 on Jones v. Mississippi, the juvenile life-without-parole case that the U.S. Supreme Court took to replace the mooted D.C. Sniper, Jr. case. See prior post.

The story gives a balanced description of the legal issue, but the description of the facts is somewhat skewed. The story says:

When his grandfather swung at him, Jones responded by stabbing him with a kitchen knife. Allegedly, his grandfather “continued to come” at him, leading Jones to stab him seven more times.

The qualifier “allegedly” should apply to both sentences. We have nothing but Jones’s own statements to back up his claim that the grandfather did anything physically aggressive at all. On the other hand, we have Jones’s girlfriend’s testimony that he had earlier stated an intent to hurt his grandfather, indicating a likelihood that this was a premeditated attack and not self-defense at all. That important fact is not mentioned in the defendant’s certiorari petition, but it is in the state’s brief in opposition and the state court of appeals’s opinion.

The story notes, “During the ensuing murder trial, Jones testified that he had acted in self-defense. But the jury rejected his claim ….” And for good reason.