We’re told that the juvenile justice system is designed not to punish youthful offenders, but rather to rehabilitate them. A lofty goal to be sure, but does that principle reflect reality?
Back in 1963, a 17-year old named Montgomery was accused of killing a deputy sheriff in Louisiana. The case went to trial, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty “without capital punishment.” Under Louisiana law, this carried an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Fifty years later, the same man, now in his sixties, sought relief from the sentence.
The basis for the relief sought by Montgomery was a 2012 decision by the United States Supreme Court. In that case, entitled Miller v. Alabama, Supreme Court held that where a crime is committed by a juvenile, a mandatory life sentence, with no possibility of parole, is unconstitutional. The constitutional violation involved the Eighth Amendment prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.” You might wonder, if the court had already ruled on the constitutional issue, then why did Montgomery have to go to court to get his sentence reversed – why wasn’t a resentencing automatic?
The answer to the question is that while the Supreme Court had spoken on the constitutional issue, they didn’t tell us in Miller whether the ruling applied retroactively, that is, to old cases, or simple prospectively. Earlier this month the justices decided that issue, and the result was not good news for the Maricopa County Attorney.
The ruling in the Montgomery case, which said that Miller did, in fact, apply retroactively, means that anyone sentenced to mandatory life without parole as a juvenile is entitled to have the sentence vacated, and requires a new sentence to be imposed taking into consideration the Supreme Court ban on JLWOP. Finally, in late October of this year, the Court also ruled that new sentences would be required in five Arizona cases of JLWOP. The cases all arose in Maricopa County, and despite resistance from the County Attorney’s Office, the Supreme Court vacated all the sentences without a hearing, and ordered new sentences to be imposed. The defendants in the five cases were all 16 or 17 years old when the crimes were committed.
Law Offices of David A. Black
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