## Facts

- Marlon Latodd Howell was convicted in Mississippi of capital murder (murder during an attempted robbery) for killing newspaper carrier Hugh David Pernell and was sentenced to death.
- The killing occurred around 5 a.m. while Pernell was delivering newspapers from his car; another car motioned him to stop, Howell approached Pernell’s driver-side window, and during an interaction he shot Pernell through the heart and fled.
- At trial, Howell argued he was elsewhere at the time and also argued the evidence did not prove the killing occurred during an attempted robbery (a required element for capital murder as charged).
- Howell requested jury instructions on lesser offenses (simple murder and manslaughter) in addition to the State’s proposed capital-murder instruction.
- The trial court refused the requested lesser-included-offense instructions; the jury convicted Howell of capital murder and imposed the death penalty.
- On direct appeal, Howell challenged (among other issues) the refusal to instruct on simple murder or manslaughter, relying primarily on Mississippi precedent without expressly invoking the U.S. Constitution.
- The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the lesser-included-instruction claim on state-law grounds, finding the evidence did not warrant instructions on manslaughter or simple murder.

## Issues

1. Whether Howell fairly presented to the Mississippi Supreme Court a federal constitutional claim (Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments) concerning the refusal to give lesser-included-offense instructions in a capital case.
2. If the federal claim was not fairly presented, whether the U.S. Supreme Court should decide the merits or dismiss the writ as improvidently granted.

## Decision

- The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted in a per curiam decision.
- The Court held that Howell did not raise the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment claim in the Mississippi Supreme Court, which therefore did not address it.
- The Mississippi Supreme Court’s judgment affirming the conviction and death sentence remained in effect.

## Legal Principles

- U.S. Supreme Court review of a state-court judgment on federal grounds generally requires that the federal claim be fairly presented to the state’s highest court.
- A litigant does not fairly present a federal constitutional claim by relying on state cases in a manner that fails to identify the claim as federal, even if the state cases contain an indirect lineage to a federal decision.
- When the Court determines after granting certiorari that the case does not properly present the federal question for review, it may dismiss the writ as improvidently granted.

## Conclusion

The Court declined to address whether the Constitution requires lesser-included-offense instructions in certain capital cases because Howell failed to clearly present the asserted Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment claim to the Mississippi Supreme Court, leaving no properly preserved federal issue for review.


Howell v. Mississippi, 543 U.S. 440 (2005)