Supreme Court Restricts Life Sentences for Juvenile Offenders

The United States Supreme Court rules that teenagers may not imprisoned prison for life with no chance of parole if they have not killed anyone. By a 6-3 vote, the high court rules these cases violate the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"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 non-homicide 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.'"

Left unanswered are questions about life sentences for juveniles who do commit murder.

The United States is the only country in the world that still sentences juveniles to life in prison without possibility of parole. Black children are sentenced to LWOP ten times more often than white children, according to Amnesty International.

The three votes affirming the right to imprison juveniles for life when they haven't killed anyone? Alito, Scalia and Thomas.

Also today: The Court upheld a federal law that allows the government to keep some sex offenders behind bars after they have served their sentences. Thomas and Scalia dissented in the 7-2 decision.

Comments

[KP]

Interesting... Conservative justices say it's okay to imprison kids FOR LIFE for crimes other than murder, then say that sex offenders SHOULDN'T be kept in prison after they've finished their sentences. Kind of schizophrenic reasoning I think. I guess it at least demonstrates that even conservatives aren't conservative on every issue.

[Jim]

KP, it's not so schizophrenic if you think about it. More and more, the average conservative knows that the next sex offender to be brought to justice might possibly be him.

[Beth]

Actually, it's not schizophrenic at all. True conservatives believe that the federal government shouldn't interfere in state sentencing guidelines--thus the dissenting opinion in the LWOP case. They also believe that imprisoning someone after his/her sentence is over is a violation of his/her Constitutional rights--thus the opinion in the sex offender case.

You may not agree with their conclusions, but their logic is consistent, at least in these cases. It's a matter of using a narrow interpretation of the Constitution...which is what conservatives used to believe in, and some still do.