Supreme Court to Consider Life in Prison for Juveniles

[babylonsister]

Supreme Court to Consider Life in Prison for Juveniles

by James Vicini


WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide the constitutionality of giving juveniles who commit crimes other than murder a sentence of life in prison without the chance of release.

The nation's high court agreed to hear two Florida cases, one involving a 13-year-old convicted of raping an elderly woman and the other involving a 17-year-old who took part in an armed home-invasion robbery while on probation for an earlier violent crime.

Their lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court and argued that life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole, for juveniles whose crimes did not involve murder violated the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court in 2005 abolished the death penalty for juveniles.

The justices will consider in the two cases whether to extend that ruling to sentences of life without parole for juveniles convicted of crimes other than murder.

The justices are expected to hear and then decide the two cases during their upcoming term that begins in October.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/05-0

[NightWatcher]

1. the 13 year old should be in mental health treatment not life in prison

I'd argue that a 13 year old capable of that gruesome a crime has mental health issues. Yes, imprison him, but pair that incapacitation with treatment.

IMO, the 17 year old is too close to 18 to differentiate punishment. Plus in that case it says he was already on probation for an earlier crime.