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March 19, 2012
Lots of media coverage anticipating SCOTUS arguments on JLWOP
Unsurprisingly, the media now has lots of discussion of kids sent to prison for life with the US Supreme Court due to hear oral argument tomorrow in Jackson v. Hobbs and Miller v. Alabama, two cases concerning the constitutionality of sentencing a 14-year-old killer to life without parole. Here is just a sampling of some of the notable new pieces from both old and new media:
From ABC News here, "Juvenile Murderers: Is Life Without Parole Unconstitutional?"
From the Chicago Tribune here, "For young killers, 'a chance to have a chance'; Supreme Court to consider whether a life sentence without parole is too harsh for juveniles"
From the Daily Beast here, "Ex-Prisoners Say Life Term Is Cruel for Teens, As Case Hits High Court"
From UPI here, "Under the U.S. Supreme Court: When children commit murder"
In addition, a large number of news outlets have recent editorials urging SCOTUS to declare these juve LWOP sentences always unconstitution, including CNN and the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times and the Washington Post and lots of other smaller media outlets from all around the nation (as evidenced here and here and here).
Some recent related posts on Jackson and Miller cases:
- Supreme Court grants cert on two Eighth Amendment LWOP challenges for 14-year-old murderers!
- Basic background on Jackson and Miller, the new SCOTUS juve LWOP cases
- Briefs available, and jurisprudential challenges clear, in Jackson and Miller JLWOP cases
- Notable early prediction on what SCOTUS will do with juve LWOP in Jackson and Miller
- "Graham on the Ground"
- Does Graham create constitutional problems for juve LWOP for murder accomplice?
- "Teen killers get inconsistent sentences"
- "The Supreme Court and the Sentencing of Juveniles in the United States: Reaffirming the Distinctiveness of Youth"
- "Juvenile Criminal Responsibility: Can Malice Supply the Want of Years?"
- Great early commentary on SCOTUS taking "Another Bite at the Graham Cracker"
- "The Lives of Juvenile Lifers: Findings from a National Survey"
- Lengthy new New Yorker piece on juve LWOP and 14-year-old Michigan murderer
March 19, 2012 at 09:26 AM | Permalink
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Comments
|| "Ex-Prisoners Say Life Term Is Cruel for Teens, As Case Hits High Court" ||
:: "Jose Walle, of Florida, was sentenced to life in prison for *raping two women at gunpoint* when he was 13. After a Supreme Court decision prohibited life sentences for juvenile offenders who didn't kill, Walle was resentenced…Added to a sentence he received for a *separate*rape* conviction*…"
Victims, people, victims! !
:: "Life Term is Cruel"
Are you serious? The sad truth is, some people are.
Posted by: Adamakis | Mar 20, 2012 10:08:28 AM
:: "The odds are pretty good the U.S. Supreme Court, or at least a narrow majority of the nine justices, will find the Miller sentence and others like it constitutionally excessive.
FACT: "A 14-year-old boy [Miller] holding a baseball bat stood over a man he had robbed and repeatedly beaten, telling him, "I am God, I've come to take your life."
FACT:: "After hitting the man in the head a final time with the bat, the 14-year-old and a friend set the man's trailer on fire. Despite the beating, Cole Cannon was still alive and conscious. He managed to ask, "Why are y'all doing this to me?" Then he was burned alive."
"Miller's case, along with the Arkansas case…is set for argument in the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday."
Who would bring such a case?
Perhaps the only sentence more just would be capital punishment.
Posted by: Adamakis | Mar 20, 2012 10:15:39 AM
"The odds are pretty good… In 2005's Roper vs. Simmons, the high court *rejected its own precedent *and ruled 5-4 that the Eighth Amendment…prohibits executing a convicted defendant who committed murder before 18"
+++Aye, it suddenly does now+++
"Referring to foreign criticism of U.S. executions of those who committed murder before 18, Kennedy said: "The overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty…"
+++is irrelevant? not to him+++
[THE CASE???…]
FACT 1: "The case involved a 17-year-old in Missouri, Christopher Simmons, who resolved to commit murder. He and a friend invaded the home of a woman, used duct tape to cover her eyes and mouth and bind her hands, put her in her minivan and drove to a state park."
FACT 2:: "They reinforced the bindings, covered her head with a towel, and walked her to a railroad trestle spanning the Meramec River," the majority opinion said. "There they tied her hands and feet together with electrical wire, wrapped her whole face in duct tape and threw her from the bridge, drowning her in the waters below."
FACT 3::: "On the same day searchers recovered the woman's body from the river, Simmons "was bragging about the killing, telling friends he had killed a woman 'because the bitch seen my face.'"" http://www.upi.com
"He that justifieth the wicked…"
Posted by: Adamakis | Mar 20, 2012 10:41:49 AM
