Mississippi court won't undo 12-year sentence for jail phone

https://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-court-wont-undo-12-125428316.html

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
,Associated Press•April 10, 2020


An attorney says he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 12-year prison sentence given to an African American man in Mississippi for carrying his mobile phone into a jail cell after he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge.

The Mississippi Supreme Court said Thursday that it will not reconsider its earlier decision to uphold the sentence of Willie Nash.

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The sentence Nash received in August 2018 for possessing a cellphone in jail is longer than Mississippi courts would impose for second-degree arson or poisoning someone with the intent to kill, Bardwell wrote in his January appeal.

Bardwell also wrote that there was no proof Nash was searched for a cellphone before being booked into jail. The appeal said Mississippi is one of only three states where a 12-year sentence for having a cellphone in jail is even possible, and research found no cases of such a long sentence being given in the other two states, Arkansas and Illinois.

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