The Supreme Court has ruled out life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of nonhomicidal crimes. The ruling in Graham v. Florida is in Adobe .pdf format.
The initial AP dispatch is, "High court rules out life sentences for juveniles," by Mark Sherman.
The Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life without chance of parole if they haven't killed anyone.
By a 5-4 vote Monday, the court says the Constitution requires that young people serving life sentences must at least be considered for release.
The court ruled in the case of Terrance Graham, who was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17. Graham, now 22, is in prison in Florida, which holds more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for crimes other than homicide.
"The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. "This the Eighth Amendment does not permit."
And:
Those inmates are in Florida and seven other states - California, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina - according to a Florida State University study. More than 2,000 other juveniles are serving life without parole for killing someone. Their sentences are not affected by Monday's decision.
SCOTUS Blog's "Today’s orders and opinions," has this:
In Graham v. Florida (08-7412), the Court reverses and remands, in an opinion again by Justice Kennedy. The vote is 6-3, with Justice Thomas dissenting, joined by Justice Scalia and in part by Justice Alito. Justice Alito files a separate dissenting opinion for himself. Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor, concurs, even though all three join the majority opinion, and the Chief Justice concurs in the result alone.
- Holding: It is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole when the crime does not involve murder, given the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.
The Court dismisses Sullivan v. Florida (08-7621) as improvidently granted, in this per curiam opinion.
I'm sure we will be seeing more coverage and commentary in the hours ahead. Earlier coverage of the issue begins with this post.
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