JACKSON — The Mississippi Supreme Court refused to hear the final appeal of David Moody on May 1, leaving intact a lower court ruling that upheld his life-without-parole sentence for crimes committed when he was 14.
The high court rejected Moody’s petition by a 6-1 vote, effectively affirming an August 2025 Mississippi Court of Appeals decision. 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.
The case returned to state courts after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling required judges to individually consider a juvenile’s age, background and potential for rehabilitation before imposing life without parole. A three-day hearing in Perry County in February 2024 resulted in the circuit judge deciding the sentence should stand, a determination the Court of Appeals and now the state Supreme Court declined to overturn.
Court records show that on May 14, 1995, Moody and his older cousin, Kenneth Moody, were with the young couple at a bridge in Perry County when Kenneth attacked and killed Hatcher and then kidnapped, raped and murdered Bond. Moody has maintained throughout the proceedings that Kenneth threatened to kill him if he did not cooperate; DNA evidence, prosecutors said at the hearing, supported that Moody did not commit the rape. Moody came forward to police four days later and led investigators to the bodies.
At the 2024 hearing a former Forrest County sheriff described the case as a grave injustice, while courts pointed to 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 capacity for rehabilitation. A dissenting judge on the Court of Appeals said the majority placed too much weight on the severity of the crime and not enough on Moody’s status as a frightened child under the control of a violent older relative. Two justices on the state Supreme Court said the case deserved a closer look but were outvoted. With the high court’s refusal, Moody has no remaining avenues for appeal within the Mississippi court system. This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
