01 Jun MCJ Hosts Initiative to Resentence Juvenile Offenders Serving Life Without Parole

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 1, 2021

CONTACT: Patrick Taylor, ptaylor@mscenterforjustice.org

Jackson, MS – Mississippi Center for Justice is honored to announce that starting June 1, 2021, it will host a criminal justice initiative to ensure that juvenile offenders who were sentenced to life without parole will receive resentencing hearings in which their constitutional rights are protected. The initiative will ensure compliance with the United States Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, which requires that sentences account for the individual character of juvenile defendants and the circumstances of the crime.

Stacy Ferraro, a highly experienced criminal defense attorney, will lead this initiative. Stacy was a founding board member and pioneering donor of MCJ and has devoted much of her career to the law’s most difficult challenges in capital murder cases. In this initiative, Stacy will coordinate competent representation for all Mississippi individuals facing juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) and directly represent clients in targeted cases at various stages of proceedings.

“We are delighted to welcome Stacy Ferraro to lead this important criminal justice initiative and look forward to her achievements to ensure that courts observe the rules imposed by our Constitution,” said Vangela M. Wade, Mississippi Center for Justice President and CEO.

“It gives me great pleasure to bring this work to an organization to which I was deeply committed for a long time. I am thrilled to be involved as MCJ expands its commitment to criminal justice reform,” said Stacy Ferraro.

The Mississippi Center for Justice is a homegrown public service law firm dedicated to dismantling the state’s culture of inequity and injustice. Supported and staffed by attorneys and other professionals, the Center develops and pursues strategies to combat discrimination and poverty statewide.

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