Effective coverage from Bolts of juvenile and young adult sentencing developments in two states

Regular readers know that I consider Bolts as must-read for many reasons, and particularly for its effective coverage of a range of state and local criminal justice issues.  In the last couple weeks, Bolts has covered notable sentencing stories involving younger offenders from a couple of states:

From Michigan, "Another State Restricts Life Sentences for Young Adults: Michigan’s supreme court created new protections against life sentences for people up to 20, pushing the line for who gets second chances beyond age 18."  An excerpt:

This decision also underscores this supreme court’s progressive approach to sentencing issues, as Democratic justices have banded together to deliver repeat wins for defendants and incarcerated people. In many of these rulings, including last week’s, they’ve stressed language in Michigan’s state constitution that bans “cruel or unusual punishments,” a subtle difference from the federal ban on “cruel and unusual punishments” that makes it easier for litigants to argue that their rights have been violated. (Other state constitutions have similar language.)

From North Carolina, "In North Carolina, Juvenile Lifers See a Pathway to Freedom: After the state’s previous governor granted clemency to people sentenced to life in prison as minors, others with juvenile life sentences are hoping the new administration also believes in second chances."

North Carolina’s Juvenile Sentence Review Board sprang from a broader attempt to address racial inequities in the criminal legal system in 2020, following George Floyd’s murder by police and the protests it sparked across the country.... 

The 12 people [former NC Gov. Roy] Cooper ultimately released from prison after their cases were reviewed by the JSRB were part of a broader focus on clemency in the final stretch of Cooper’s tenure.  During his eight years in office, Cooper issued 34 pardons and 43 commutations, including commuting 15 death sentences to life without parole in December, on his final day in office. 

That’s a marked increase from other 21st-century governors: Collectively, Cooper’s three predecessors granted clemency or commutations to only 32 people over a 16-year period. 

UPDATE: A helpful reader suggested that full stories around this post could and should include a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in State v. Tirado, No. 267PA21 (NC Jan. 31, 2025) (avaialble here).  This ruling rebuffed a teenage offender's argument that the North Carolina Constitution provides great limits on juvenile punishments than the Eighth Amendment, and the majority opinion for the Court starts this way:

In this case we consider whether the Court of Appeals denied merits review of defendant’s constitutional challenge to his consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without parole (life without parole) under Article I, Section 27 of the North Carolina Constitution.  The Court of Appeals comprehensively addressed all of defendant’s arguments, including his constitutional challenge.  Because federal courts have interpreted the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution to provide greater protections for juvenile offenders than our state constitution’s plain text affords, this Court locksteps its application of Article I, Section 27 with that of the Eighth Amendment to ensure that no citizen is afforded lesser rights.  Thus, the Court of Appeals did not need to separately consider defendant’s claim under the North Carolina Constitution.