Georgia Criminal Lawyer Blog

By a 5-4 vote the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that young people serving life sentences must at least be considered for release.  Terrance Graham is locked up in a Florida prison for crimes other than homicide.  The Court says that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole when the crime does not involve murder. The opinion is based on the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.

“Life without parole sentences share some characteristics with death sentences that are shared by no other sentences. The State does not execute the offender sentenced to life without parole, but the sentence alters the offender’s life by a forfeiture that is irrevocable.  It deprives the convictof the most basic liberties without giving hope of restora-tion, except perhaps by executive clemency — the remote possibility of which does not mitigate the harshness of the sentence….” Justice Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion.

Here is a link to the Graham opinion.