Brief Bank
We include here briefs filed in cases around the country relating to Graham v. Florida, Miller v. Alabama, and Montgomery v. Louisiana.
Arkansas
Ark. S.B. 294, 91st Gen. Assemb. (Reg. Sess. 2017) (amending Ark. Code §§ 5-4-104(b), 5-4-602(3), 5-10-101(c), 5-10-102(c), 16-93-612(e), 16-93-613, 16-93-614, 16-93-618, and enacting new sections). Arkansas passed a statute in 2017 eliminating life without parole for...
More good news from Missouri: Parole plaintiffs granted summary judgment
By Elana Bildner Brown v. Precythe, No. 2:17-cv-04082-NKL, 2018 WL 4956519 (W.D. Mo. Oct. 12, 2018) Update: There’s further good news in the Missouri case challenging parole procedures for juvenile lifers: A year after they defeated a motion to dismiss, plaintiffs...
California
California passed a statute in 2017 that retroactively eliminates life-without-parole sentences for children. The new statute provides that a person sentenced to life without parole for an offense committed before age 18 is eligible for parole at a youth offender parole hearing during his or her 25th year of incarceration…
Reducing Transfer to the Adult System
This memo describes reforms and provides model legislation aimed at reducing the number of children transferred to adult court by increasing judicial oversight over the transfer decision and reducing the pathways to adult court.
People v. Contreras
The California Supreme Court clarified that a sentence need not exceed life expectancy to deprive a juvenile nonhomicide offender of the requisite meaningful opportunity for release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation, remanding a 50-year and a 58-year sentence for resentencing.
State ex rel. Carr v. Wallace
The Missouri Supreme Court has granted relief as to a life-without-parole-for-50-years sentence, explaining that the sentence was “the harshest penalty other than death available under a mandatory sentencing scheme,” and that the jury had no opportunity to consider youth.
Davis v. State
The Wyoming Supreme Court has held that there is a presumption against life without parole for juvenile offenders, and that such a sentence may be imposed only if the state proves beyond a reasonable doubt that a juvenile offender is irreparably corrupt.
Ending Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Children
This memo addresses mandatory minimum penalties for children sentenced as adults and proposes legislation to eliminate such penalties.
Parole Board Hearings for Juvenile Offenders
This memo addresses the criteria and procedures that parole boards should use in considering the release of juvenile offenders serving lengthy sentences and provides model provisions to implement the proposed practices.
Limiting Transfer of Young Teenagers to Adult Court
This memo addresses reforms that have raised the minimum age of transfer to adult court and proposes legislation to limit or eliminate transfer of young teenagers to the adult criminal justice system.