Juvenile Life Sentences Can Be Challenged, Says Supreme Court

AUSTIN – A U.S. Supreme Court decision extending parole eligibility to convicts serving mandatory life sentences for capital murder committed as juveniles will not impact the 18 Texas prisoners who fit that profile, officials said Tuesday. “This is not a mandatory case – the judge had discretion, therefore Miller (original court ruling) doesn’t apply”, Hutto said.

But the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent decision paves the way for 48 inmates sentenced between 1991 and 2006 to have their sentences reviewed.

This means that Montgomery, along with the approximately 1,000 or more inmates whose sentences were imposed before Miller (in states that had subsequently found Miller not to apply retroactively or had not yet addressed the question), will now have an opportunity for release.

The ruling was a source point for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who supported the decision to allow states to import retroactive effect into prior cases.

Justice Kennedy dedicated the first half of his opinion in Montgomery to explaining that the Supreme Court does in fact have that authority, and rejecting the argument that only Louisiana state courts can rule on this matter. Instead, states can offer parole hearings, with no guarantee of release if inmates fail to show that they have been rehabilitated.

It remains to be seen whether Montgomery v. Louisiana will be the death knell for JLWOP. He was resentenced to life in prison.

“Requiring the states to resentence hundreds of offenders, many of whose crimes were committed decades ago, would undermine the community’s safety and would offend principles of finality”, the states argued in the brief, led by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.

Joining Scalia’s dissent were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

In Minnesota, there are eight inmates whose sentences could be affected by this ruling. He’s serving a life sentence for the murder of his brother, Greg, in 1998. But the Supreme Court has previously said such sentences should be rare, and only for the most heinous crimes.

With the number of veteran justices sitting on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court whittled down to three by retirement and scandal, the state’s highest court will go back to square one for more than two dozen undecided cases.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices said these prisoners can take advantage of an earlier ruling that called it cruel and unusual punishment to send a juvenile criminal to life in prison with no chance for parole.

What the Pendulum Foundation is doing to aid juvenile offenders. “Montgomery’s case illustrates the type of miscarriage of justice that the court wanted to avoid in issuing its Miller decision”.

Amy Adelson, an attorney who’s representing Witman, said she hopes that the court will now move on the petition – which had been held up – in the “not so distant future”.

Kennedy noted that Henry Montgomery spent each of the last 46 years knowing that he was condemned to die in prison.