The US Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles who did not commit homicide to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional. The ruling came in the Florida case of Terrance Graham, who received a life sentence at age 16 for armed burglary and violating probation at age 17. The court noted that the US is the only country that imposes such sentences on juveniles for non-homicides, and Florida has 77 of 129 such cases nationwide. The 6-3 ruling means Graham, now 23, must be resentenced as the life term denied him any chance to demonstrate rehabilitation and fitness to rejoin society based solely on crimes committed as a juvenile.
The US Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles who did not commit homicide to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional. The ruling came in the Florida case of Terrance Graham, who received a life sentence at age 16 for armed burglary and violating probation at age 17. The court noted that the US is the only country that imposes such sentences on juveniles for non-homicides, and Florida has 77 of 129 such cases nationwide. The 6-3 ruling means Graham, now 23, must be resentenced as the life term denied him any chance to demonstrate rehabilitation and fitness to rejoin society based solely on crimes committed as a juvenile.
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The US Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juveniles who did not commit homicide to life in prison without parole is unconstitutional. The ruling came in the Florida case of Terrance Graham, who received a life sentence at age 16 for armed burglary and violating probation at age 17. The court noted that the US is the only country that imposes such sentences on juveniles for non-homicides, and Florida has 77 of 129 such cases nationwide. The 6-3 ruling means Graham, now 23, must be resentenced as the life term denied him any chance to demonstrate rehabilitation and fitness to rejoin society based solely on crimes committed as a juvenile.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
USSC Ruling on Life for Juveniles will have Wide Impact in
Florida
By: JAN PUDLOW
Senior Editor The Florida Bar News
The second harshest possible sentence – life in prison without parole –
is unconstitutional when imposed on juveniles who did not kill anyone, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 17 in a Florida case. News of the highly anticipated landmark ruling in Graham v. Florida (SC08-7412) – declaring Terrance Graham’s sentence at age 16 for armed burglary and a subsequent violation of probation when he was 17 was “cruel and unusual punishment” under the 8th Amendment – spread across the state, nation, and globe. The court noted that the United States is the only country that imposes life without parole sentences on juveniles for non-homicides, and Florida has 77 of 129 such cases nationwide. “Terrance’s sentence of life without the possibility of parole was cruel because it condemned Terrance to die in prison for an adolescent crime that, though serious, did not involve the taking of a life,” said Bryan Gowdy, of the Jacksonville firm Mills, Creed & Gowdy, who argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court November 9th. “It was cruel because it determined, based on adolescent conduct, that Terrance was forever incapable of change and reform and forever unfit to live in society. This sentence cruelly ignored the differences between adolescents and adults. We all know, and scientists have confirmed, that adolescents are less culpable, less mature, more vulnerable, and more likely to change and reform with time.” The vote was 6 to 3 to reverse and remand the case for resentencing of Graham, now 23. “Terrance Graham’s sentence guarantees he will die in prison without any meaningful opportunity to obtain release, no matter what he might do to demonstrate that the bad acts he committed as a teenager are not representative of his true character, even if he spends the next half century attempting to atone for his crimes and learn from his mistakes,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority. “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. This, the 8th Amendment does not permit.”