Minnesota through new legislation becomes 28th state to prohibit juve LWOP

Via email from The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, I learned this afternoon that "Minnesota has officially become the 28th state to ban juvenile life without parole as an omnibus public safety bill (SF 2909) was signed by Minnesota Governor Walz after passing through the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives." This Equal Justice Initiative piece provides some details and context:

Minnesota lawmakers this week abolished life imprisonment without parole for children. The reform is part of a public safety bill designed to transform the state’s approach to children accused of criminal offenses.

The bill not only retroactively eliminates juvenile life-without-parole sentences but also provides that children sentenced in adult court will be eligible for supervised release after at least 15 years in prison.

A newly created Supervised Release Board will be required to consider an expert assessment of the individual’s cognitive, emotional, and social maturity as well as relevant science on children’s neurological development.

Approximately 40 people will be eligible for review, University of Minnesota law professor Perry Moriearty told the Star Tribune.

The new law also creates a statewide Office of Restorative Practices to promote alternative, community-based approaches to hold children accountable, respond to victims’ needs, and address the issues underlying children’s behavior.

State grants will be provided to counties to develop local restorative justice initiatives, such as victim-offender dialogues and family group conferences, with input from parents, youths, school administrators, county prosecutors, and local law enforcement.

LawProf Mark Osler has this Twitter thread about the public safety bill that was just signed into law in Minnesota, and it highlights some other interesting sentencing features (among many others):

The bill restructures clemency. Among other features, the Pardon Board (the Gov, AG & Chief Justice) can grant clemency by a 2-1 vote with the gov in the majority. Previously, it required a unanimous vote. It also establishes a clemency commission to evaluate cases....

Adds members to the board of public defense and to the sentencing commission (including a formerly incarcerated member)....

Creates an avenue for prosecutor-initiated re-sentencing.

Caps probation at 5 years, and makes that cap retroactive for those already sentenced....

Establishes good-time credits for those in prison who pursue programming and education (up to 17% of a sentence can be earned), on top of the 1/3 of sentences that already are presumptively on supervised release.