Cite as 2013 Ark. 175
section for an offense in which the defendant was not the only participant that the defendant did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, command, induce, procure, counsel, or aid in its commission.
(c) Capital murder is punishable by death or life imprisonment without parole pursuant to §§ 5-4-601 — 5-4-605, 5-4-607, and 5-4-608. For all purposes other than disposition under §§ 5-4-101 — 5-4-104, 5-4-201 — 5-4-204, 5-4-301 — 5-4-308, 5-4-310, 5-4-311, 5-4-401 — 5-4-404, 5-4-501 — 5-4-504, 5-4-505 [repealed], 5-4-601 — 5-4-605, 5-4-607, and 5-4-608, capital murder is a Class Y felony.
Thus, the statute provides for a mandatory sentence for persons convicted of capital murder of either death or life without parole. See also Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-104(b) (Repl. 1997) (providing that "[a] defendant convicted of capital murder . . . shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole"); Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-615 (Repl. 1997) (providing that "[a] person convicted of a capital offense shall be punished by death by lethal injection or by life imprisonment without parole"). In this instance, Jackson was ineligible for the death penalty. Miller, ___ U.S. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2461 n.1 (citing Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988) (plurality opinion)). There are no provisions in the capital-murder statute providing a lesser sentence for persons under the age of eighteen.
In Miller, the United States Supreme Court stated that "[b]y removing youth from the balance," Arkansas's mandatory sentencing scheme for capital murder "prohibit[s] a sentencing authority from assessing whether the law's harshest term of imprisonment proportionally punishes a juvenile offender." Id. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2466. The Court explained that "[s]uch mandatory penalties, by their nature, preclude a sentencer from taking account of an offender's age and the wealth of characteristics and circumstances attendant to it." Id. at ___, 132 S. Ct. at 2467.
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