Prisoners sentenced as juveniles to life without parole, even for homicide, may now petition courts for parole eligibility, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
“Allowing those offenders to be considered for parole ensures that juveniles whose crimes reflected only transient immaturity — and who have since matured — will not be forced to serve a disproportionate sentence in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” the 6-3 ruling said.
Louisiana prisoner Henry Montgomery served 46 years of a life sentence for killing a police officer when he was 17. The trial judge determined he should never be eligible for parole.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile homicide offenders violated the eighth amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision in that case, Miller v. Alabama, required sentencing courts to consider a child’s “diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change” before condemning him or her to life in prison.
After that decision, Montgomery asked Louisiana state courts to review his sentence, claiming it was unconstitutional. They denied his petition, which he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court overruled Louisiana’s decision, declaring that all juvenile homicide offenders serving sentences of life without parole could petition for parole eligibility. State and federal courts had previously conflicted on whether the Miller ruling applied to earlier convictions.
The new Supreme Court ruling will not affect state sentences. “A state may remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by reentencing them,” the decision reads.
