JACKSON — The Mississippi Supreme Court has refused to hear the final appeal of a man sentenced to life in prison for crimes he committed at age 14, ending his decades-long legal fight for the chance at parole.
The state’s high court rejected David Moody’s petition on May 1, 2026, with six justices voting to deny and one voting to grant. The decision leaves intact a Mississippi Court of Appeals ruling from August 2025 that upheld Moody’s life-without-parole sentence.
Moody, now in his mid-40s, has been incarcerated since 2000 for his role in the 1995 deaths of Robbie Bond and William Hatcher in Perry County. He was 14 years old at the time.
The case had worked its way back through the courts after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling required judges to individually consider a juvenile’s age, background and potential for rehabilitation before sentencing them to life without parole. A three-day hearing was held in Perry County in February 2024, after which the circuit judge decided the sentence should stand. The Court of Appeals agreed, and now the Mississippi Supreme Court has declined to second-guess that decision.
On the night of May 14, 1995, Moody and his older cousin Kenneth Moody were with the young couple at a bridge in Perry County when Kenneth Moody attacked and killed Hatcher, then kidnapped, raped and murdered Bond. David Moody maintained throughout the proceedings that Kenneth threatened to kill him if he did not cooperate, and DNA evidence supported his claim that he did not rape Bond. He came forward to police four days later and led investigators to the bodies.
The former Forrest County sheriff who first took David Moody’s statement testified at the 2024 hearing that the case was “the biggest injustice and travesty of justice” of his 44-year career.
Courts ultimately pointed to David Moody’s prison disciplinary record of more than 60 violations including possession of homemade weapons, contraband cell phones and threatening a corrections officer in concluding he had not shown the capacity for rehabilitation.
A dissenting judge on the Court of Appeals argued the majority placed too much weight on the severity of the crime and not enough on the reality that Moody was a frightened child under the control of a violent older relative with no way to escape. Two justices on the Supreme Court agreed the case deserved a closer look, but were outvoted.
With the state Supreme Court’s refusal to act, Moody has no remaining avenues for appeal within the Mississippi court system.
