ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and punishment given to a Dawson County man who was 15 when he was formally charged with aggravated child molestation.
Mitchell Lee Adams was sentenced to 25 years in prison with no chance of parole, followed by probation for the rest of his life for committing sex acts on a then-four year old girl.
Adams' attorneys challenged the mandatory minimum sentence as "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the U.S. Constitution and had also citied his age at the time of the crime in 2007 and 2008.
But the Supreme Court disagreed.
Presiding Justice George Carley wrote that the aggravated child molestation committed by Adams "was not a passive felony" and, noting some of the specifics of the case "Adams‟ 25-year sentence does not raise a threshold inference of gross disproportionality."
Sunday
October 13th, 2024
2:18PM
