Supreme Court Restricts Life Sentences for Juveniles

The article I found is called “Supreme Court Restricts Life Sentences for Juveniles”. It stated that the “U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up in prison for life with no chance of parole if they have not killed anyone.” This ruling came within the case of Terrance Graham. He was implicated in a series of armed robberies at age 17. Now Graham is 22 years old and is in prison in Florida.

Justice Anthony Kennedy stated that “The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law.” He also expressed that “This the Eighth Amendment does not permit.” Chief Justice Roberts also agreed with Justice Anthony Kennedy and four others on the Supreme Court, all liberals.

However, Roberts believes that it should not “extend to all young offenders who are locked up for crimes other than murder. By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court decided that “the U.S. Constitution requires that young people serving life sentences must at least be considered for release.”

The Supreme Court receives thousands of cases in a year, but they only choose around sixty of them to decide. That means that the case of Terrance Graham made it all the way from the district courts to the appeals courts to the Supreme Court. This is a very long process and the majority of cases don’t make it past the Court of Appeals.

All in all, this is an important case in United States History. Anytime that the Supreme Court makes a ruling on a case, it sets a precedent for the future interpretation of our constitution.

posted by: M. Laycock

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynekessler/4514980675/