FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2021
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Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Attorney General Steve Marshall Announces Resentencing of Evan Miller to Life Without Parole
(MONTGOMERY) – Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that Evan Miller has been resentenced to life in prison without parole for a brutal murder he committed in 2003 at the age of 14. Miller’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in a 2012 ruling that life without parole could not be a mandatory sentence for juveniles convicted of capital murder. However, today the Lawrence County Circuit Court accepted the Attorney General’s argument that a sentence of life without parole is the appropriate sentence in Miller’s case after considering the required sentencing factors.
“When Evan Miller robbed and savagely beat his neighbor, setting fire to the man’s trailer and leaving his incapacitated victim to die a horrible death, he earned a well-deserved sentence of life in prison without parole,” said Attorney General Marshall. “It is a tragic fact that even juvenile defendants may commit crimes that are so depraved that justice demands they be answered with the sternest sentence available under the law. Today, the Court restored the punishment that is fitting for Evan Miller’s wicked actions.”
On the evening of July 15, 2003 in Lawrence County, Miller and his accomplice, Colby Smith, went to the residence of Miller’s neighbor, Cole Cannon. They robbed Cannon and Miller beat Cannon in the face with his fists and repeatedly struck Cannon with a baseball bat. Cannon’s trailer was set afire and he was left in the fire to die. Smith pleaded guilty, testified against Miller, and was sentenced to life in prison. Miller was found guilty and sentenced in 2006 to life in prison without parole.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Miller v. Alabama that mandatory life-without-parole sentences could not be imposed on juveniles, the trial court reconsidered Miller’s sentence, resulting in today’s order again sentencing him to life in prison without parole.
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