Title: Bridges v. State
Citation: 482 So. 2d 1139
Docket Number: 56302
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: January 29, 1986

482 So. 2d 1139 (1986) Bennett BRIDGES v. STATE of Mississippi. No. 56302. Supreme Court of Mississippi. January 29, 1986. *1140 Kennie E. Middleton, Fayette, for appellant. Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Leyser Q. Morris, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and HAWKINS and ANDERSON, JJ. HAWKINS, Justice, for the court: Bennett Bridges pled guilty to a charge of capital murder before the circuit court of Jones County and was sentenced as a habitual offender under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-81 (1972), to serve the remainder of his life in prison without parole. We affirm. Bridges' attorney assigned and argued only one ground for reversal, that the imposition of the habitual offender law in this case was violative of the United States Constitution's 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment as applied to the states through the 14th Amendment. This Court in Baker v. State, 394 So. 2d 1376 (Miss. 1981), considered a similar 8th Amendment challenge to Mississippi's other habitual offender statute, § 99-19-83. Chief Justice Patterson, writing for the Court in Baker, explained the Court's reasoning in upholding the constitutionality of § 99-19-83, as follows: Id. at 1378-1379. We therefore hold that § 99-19-81 is constitutional as written and as applied to the present case. AFFIRMED. PATTERSON, C.J., WALKER and ROY NOBLE LEE, P.JJ., and DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ANDERSON, JJ., concur.