We are beginning to see how courts are interpreting recent Supreme Court decisions narrowing the possibility of someone being sentenced to Life without Parole for a crime committed as a juvenile. Following from the Roper and Graham decisions, and the more recent Miller v. Alabama case, questions remained as to how courts would interpret sentences that were de facto life without parole sentences, even if not called that.
As many of the Florida cases that led to these decisions are resentenced, questions arise like “Are two consecutive 80 year sentences essentially the same as LWOP”? In a California case, People v. Cabellero, the California Supreme Court has ruled that a sentence of 110 years to life is essentially indistinguishable from a LWOP sentence and therefore unconstitutional. As more of these cases arise, the recognition that the rationale underlying the US Supreme Court decisions requires that youthful offenders be viewed differently than adults hopefully will lead to more decisions like this one.
For more information, connect with the Juvenile Law Policy Center.
by Jim Moeser
