Juvenile Sentencing Project

Youth Matters

From Connecticut, March 2013: Youth Matters: A Second Look for Connecticut’s Children Serving Long Prison Sentences.

Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative v. Hogan

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland denied in part motion to dismiss action challenging constitutionality of Maryland’s parole system as applied to juvenile homicide offenders, finding that plaintiffs had “sufficiently alleged that Maryland’s parole system operates as a system of executive clemency, in which opportunities for release are ‘remote,’ rather than a true parole scheme in which opportunities for release are ‘meaningful’ and ‘realistic’ as required.

State v. Bassett

The Washington Supreme Court has held that the re-imposition of a life-without-parole sentence at a Miller resentencing proceeding, pursuant to the state’s Miller “fix” statute, violates the state’s constitutional provision against cruel punishment.

Iowa

State v. Sweet (2016)

Massachusetts

H. 4307, 188th Gen. Court (Mass. 2014) (amending Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 27, § 4; ch. 119, § 72B; ch. 127 §§ 133A, 133C; ch. 265, § 2; ch. 279, § 24 and enacting new sections).

Nevada

A.B. 267, 78th Reg. Sess. (Nev. 2015) (amending Nev. Rev. Stat. §§ 176.025, 213.107 and enacting new sections in chs. 213 & 176.

New Jersey

New Jersey eliminated life without parole for juveniles with legislation passed in 2017.

People v. Hyatt

A conflicts panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned Skinner, deciding that a judge, and not a jury, is to make the determination about whether to sentence a juvenile to life without parole.

State v. Long

Ohio Supreme Court concluded that Eighth Amendment requires trial courts to consider youth as a mitigating factor before imposing discretionary LWOP sentence on juveniles for homicide offenses

Aiken v. Byars

South Carolina Supreme Court held that Miller applies to both mandatory and discretionary LWOP sentences and reversed and remanded 15 cases in which juvenile offenders received discretionary LWOP sentences.

People v. Nieto

Juvenile offender sentenced to 78 years in discretionary regime entitled to resentencing because Miller and Montgomery bar life without parole for “all but the rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.”

Casiano v. Commissioner

Sentence of 50 years without parole denied juvenile offender a meaningful opportunity for release under the Eighth Amendment.

State ex rel. Alden Morgan v. State

Louisiana Supreme Court held that a 99-year sentence without the possibility of parole contravened Graham’s requirement of a meaningful opportunity to obtain release and is illegal (but distinguished aggregate term-of-year sentences).

Bear Cloud v. State

Juvenile offender ineligible for parole for 45 years entitled to resentencing under Miller; court must weigh the entire sentencing package in light of the mitigating factors of youth.

Hayden v. Keller

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina determined that a sentence of life with parole imposed on a juvenile nonhomicide offender violated the Eighth Amendment because North Carolina’s parole process does not provide a meaningful opportunity for release.

Greiman v. Hodges

Juvenile non-homicide offender serving life with parole after 25 years alleged that Iowa’s parole system denied him a meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation; defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint denied.