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U.S. Supreme Court Hears Cases Challenging Constitutionality of Juvenile Life without Parole Sentences
On November 9, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases, Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida, to determine whether the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which bans cruel and unusual punishment) prohibits life imprisonment without the possibility of parole where the defendant was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense and where the offense did not result in a homicide.
Both cases are ones of “first impression,” which means they represent the first time the Court will rule on the legality of juvenile life without parole sentences (JLWOP).
According to case filings, Joe Sullivan, one of the petitioners, was 13 years old when he and two older boys broke into a home, where they robbed and sexually assaulted an elderly woman. After a one-day trial in 1989, Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Terrance Graham, the other petitioner, was 16 when he and two others robbed a restaurant. When he was arrested again a year later for a home break-in, a Florida judge said he was incorrigible, violated him on his probation and imposed a term of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.
Lawyers for both cases argued that the same rationale the Supreme Court used in Roper v. Simmons (2005) to abolish the juvenile death penalty applies to juvenile life without parole sentences.
In Roper, the Supreme Court looked to advances made in adolescent brain science that recognizes the impulse control and decision-making capacities of juveniles under the age of 18 are not as developed as those of adults. Consequently, juveniles should not be deemed as culpable as adults for the offenses they commit. In addition, detailed research on the use of JLWOP around the nation has documented evidence of systemic racial disparities, gross failures in legal representation, and many examples of youth being sentenced more harshly than adults convicted of the same crimes. Nearly 60% of people serving JLWOP are first time offenders.
The United States is the only nation where individuals – more than 2,500 as of 2009 – are serving life without parole sentences for crimes they committed while under the age of 18. Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oregon and the District of Columbia forbid the sentencing of juveniles to a life term of imprisonment without the possibility of parole (JLWOP), and there are no people known to be serving JLWOP in Maine, New Jersey, New York, Vermont or West Virginia. The vast majority of states and the U.S. federal government, however, allow JLWOP.
On August 4, 2009, on recommendation by the CJJ Government Relations Committee, the CJJ Executive Board approved a position opposing the imposition of life sentences without the possibility of parole for youth who were under the age of 18 when they committed the offense (juvenile life without parole or “JLWOP”). CJJ also signed on in support of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, a national campaign dedicated to ending the practice of sentencing youth to prison for the rest of their lives.
Click here to read the CJJ position opposing JLWOP.
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