formality on the road to resentencing, but rather the date of his resentencing itself. At the time of Harris's resentencing, the FSMA was effective, and the defect in the statute under which Harris had originally been sentenced was cured via the parole-eligibility provisions of the FSMA.
There is no question that the sentencing provision under the FSMA, life with parole eligibility after 30 years for capital murder or life with parole eligibility after 25 years for first-degree murder, is more lenient than the original provision of the statute that existed at the time of Harris's conviction. There is also no question that the Jackson remedy sought by Harris—a new hearing with a sentencing range of 10 to 40 years or life—is more lenient than the original provision of the statute that existed at the time of Harris's conviction. The difference is that one was judicially created by this court in a vacuum as a necessary, but temporary, resolution to the Miller situation, while the other was legislatively created as a permanent solution to Miller.
Whether we apply the FSMA or the Jackson remedy to Harris, he will end up with a sentence that is more lenient than any sentence he could have received under the statute in place at the time of his conviction. Either way, the timeline of events is still constrained to the following factual sequence: (1) Harris was convicted of committing capital murder while he was a juvenile; (2) Harris was sentenced under a statute that required life without parole (a presumed valid sentence at the time); (3) the Supreme Court decided Miller and prohibited mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders, creating a defect in the statute and a void in the law in Arkansas; (4) the defective statute was severed by this court in
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