Cozart v. Mississippi

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Defendant Zachary Cozart was convicted by jury of manslaughter, for which he was sentenced to thirty years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Cozart appealed, arguing Mississippi Code Section 97-3-25(b) (Rev. 2014) was not enacted until after defendant’s crime, therefore it was a violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the state constitution. The Court of Appeals found that although the statute at issue here was not enacted until after defendant’s crime, he waived any objection to a harsher sentence when he agreed to a jury instruction that mirrored the revised manslaughter penalty statute. The Mississippi Supreme Court found defendant’s sentence under the amended statute amounted to an ex post facto violation, reversed the sentence, and remanded for further proceedings. View "Cozart v. Mississippi" on Justia Law