Ex parte Maxwell (Original)
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted applicant of the offense of capital murder. In his application for a writ of habeas corpus, applicant claimed that his mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a crime he committed as a juvenile, violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution under "Miller v. Alabama." Applicant's sentence was imposed, and his conviction affirmed on direct appeal, before the Supreme Court announced its decision in "Miller." The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that this application be filed and set to decide if "Miller" applied retroactively to a claim raised in a post-conviction proceeding, and, if so, what remedy was appropriate. Because the Texas Court found that the Miller court announced a new substantive rule under the first Teague exception, it held that it applied retroactively. The case was therefore remanded for further sentencing proceedings not inconsistent with "Miller v. Alabama."
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