It has been reported that there are approximately 1200 people in prison doing life without parole for crimes they committed as children. The youngest is 13 . On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court held the sentencing child to life without parole is unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. The case settle around two 14-year-olds, one was convicted of murder and sentenced
to a mandatory term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The petitioner Jackson accompanied two other boys to a video store to commit a robbery; on the way to the store, he learned that one of the boys was carrying a shotgun. Jackson
stayed outside the store for most of the robbery, but after he entered, one of his co-conspirators shot and killed the store clerk. Arkansas charged Jackson as an adult with capital felony murder and aggravated robbery, and a jury convicted him of both crimes. The trial court imposed a statutorily mandated sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The other petitioner Miller, along with a friend, beat Miller’s neighbor and set fire to his trailer after an evening of drinking and
drug use. The neighbor died. Miller was initially charged as a juvenile, but his case was removed to adult court, where he was charged with murder in the course of arson. A jury found Miller guilty, and the trial court imposed a statutorily mandated punishment of life without parole. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, holding that Miller’s sentence was not overly harsh when compared to his crime, and that its mandatory nature was permissible under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment “guarantees individuals the right not to be subjected to excessive sanctions.” That right “flows from the basic ‘precept of justice that punishment for crime should be graduated and proportioned’ ” to both the offender and the offense.
JUSTICE KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. The two 14-year-old offenders in these cases were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In neither case did the sentencing authority have any discretion to impose a different punishment. State law mandated that each juvenile die in prison even if a judge or jury would have thought that his youth and its attendant characteristics, along with the nature of his crime, made a lesser sentence (for example, life with the possibility of parole) more appropriate. Such a scheme prevents those meting out punishment from
considering a juvenile’s “lessened culpability” and greater “capacity for change.”
In 2010 the Graham v. Florida case, ruled juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional for non-homicide offenses. Terrance Jamar Graham along with two accomplices, attempted to rob a barbecue restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida in July 2003. Aged 16 at the time, Graham was arrested for the robbery attempt and was charged as an adult for armed burglary with assault and battery, as well as attempted armed robbery. The first charge was a first-degree felony that is punishable by life. He pleaded guilty and his plea was accepted. Six months later, on December 2, 2004, Graham was arrested again for home invasion robbery. Though Graham denied involvement, he acknowledged that he was in violation of his plea agreement. In 2006, the presiding judge sentenced Graham to life in prison. Because Florida abolished parole, it became a sentence without parole.
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. The Constitution prohibits the imposition of a life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide. A State need not guarantee the offender eventual release, but if it imposes a sentence of life it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity to obtain release before the end of that term. The judgment of the First District Court of Appeal of Florida is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
The controversy over giving children life in prison is not one that’s going to go away. This writer also has conflicting feelings over the subject. Especially given the fact that the majority of these sentences are handed out to black children. Case in point: Lionel Alexander Tate, born January 30, 1987, is the youngest American citizen ever sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. In January 2001, when Tate was 13, he was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1999 battering death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick in Broward County, Florida. It was reported at the time, he asked if he could take his Nintendo with him. On July 28, 1999 Tate was left alone with Eunick, who was being babysat by Tate’s mother. While the children were downstairs playing, Tate’s mother called to them to be quiet. Tate came up 45 minutes later to say that Eunick was not breathing. He stated that they were wrestling, he had her in a head lock and slammed the child’s head into the table. Tate was convicted of killing Eunick by stomping on her so forcefully that her liver was lacerated. Her other injuries included a fractured skull, fractured rib and swollen brain. These injuries were characterized by the prosecution as “similar to those she would have sustained by falling from a three-story building.” The court said that “The acts of Lionel Tate were not the playful acts of a child. The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous and indescribably cruel. ate’s mother, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, and the defense had turned down a plea bargain arrangement which would have allowed Tate to serve a three-year term for second-degree murder in a youth facility followed by 10 years’ probation but instead, his mother insisted on going to trial in hopes of an acquittal. In January 2004, a state appeals court overturned his conviction on the basis that his mental competency had not been evaluated before trial. This opened the way for Tate to accept the same plea deal he originally turned down, and he was released on one year’s house arrest and 10 years probation. To make a long story short, Tate violated his parole when he was found out of his house and carrying an eight-inch knife. Tate was placed on zero tolerance probation, for an additional five years. The next year Tate was charged with armed burglary with battery, armed robbery and violation of probation. Tate accepted a plea bargain and was to be sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for violating probation. I know what many of you might be thinking.. the boy was institutionalized by the time he got out. Me too, but there are so many why’s? Want more, click here.
The United States is the only country in the world that sentences children to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and that children of color, African American children in particular are handed these sentences more often than not. In 2011, it was legal to sentence children to life without parole in all but five states. Today, 19 states and the District of Columbia ban the practice. I guess I will end this report quoting a man who also spent a lifetime in prison.
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Nelson Mandela
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