Life Imprisonment - United States

United States

In 2010, the United States Supreme court ruled that sentencing minors to life without parole, automatically (as the result of a statute) or as the result of a judicial decision, for crimes other than intentional homicide violated the 8th Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment, in the case of Graham v. Florida.

Graham v. Florida was a significant case in juvenile justice. In Jacksonville, Florida, Terranee J. Graham tried to rob a restaurant along with three adolescent accomplices. During the robbery one of Graham’s accomplices had a metal bar which he used to hit the restaurant’s manager twice in the head. Once arrested Graham was charged with attempted armed robbery, and armed burglary with assault/battery. The maximum sentence he faced from these charges was life without the possibility of parole and the prosecutor wanted to charge him as an adult. During the trial, Graham pled guilty to the charges, resulting in 3 years of probation, 12 months of which had to be served in jail. Since he was awaiting trial in jail, he already served 6 months and therefore was released after 6 additional months.

After Graham’s release, in less than 6 months he was involved in another robbery. Since he violated the conditions of his probation, his probation officer reported to the trial court about his probation violations-a few weeks before Graham turned 18. It was a different judge presiding over his trial for the probation violations a year later. While Graham denied any involvement of the robbery, he did admit to fleeing from the police. The trial court found that Graham violated his probation by “committing a home invasion robbery, possessing a firearm, and associating with persons engaged in criminal activity” The final outcome of the trial was that Graham was sentenced to 15 years for the attempted armed robbery plus life imprisonment for the armed burglary. The life sentence Graham got meant he had a life sentence without the possibility of parole, “because Florida abolished their parole system in 2003”

Graham’s case was presented to the Supreme Court, with the question of should juveniles receive life without the possibility of parole in non-homicide cases. The Justices eventually ruled that it violated the juvenile’s 8th Amendment, protecting them from “"barbaric" punishments and punishments that are disproportionate to the crime committed” resulting in the banishment of life sentences without the possibility of parole in non-homicide cases for juveniles.

The United States Supreme Court considered, in the spring of 2012, the question of whether or not minors should be sentenced, at least automatically, to life without parole for any crime at all, including the only cases stated above in which it was at that time an option: first-degree murder with aggravating factors (felony murder, where life without parole was then given as an option to juveniles, and where an adult in the same context could be charged with capital murder and given life or the death penalty). On Monday, June 25, 2012, according to the Catholic News Service (CNS) news brief posted that day, the Court ruled on the case of Miller v. Alabama in a 5-4 decision and with the majority opinion written by Associate Justice Elena Kagan, that life in prison without parole as an automatic sentence would be considered unconstitutional in all cases in the United States. The majority of the justices, in the opinion, stated that the judge should take into account mitigating factors and other information which are usually of relevance during the sentencing phase. Such factors would include, but are not limited to,: information on the nature of the crime and the victim(s), age, record, potential for rehabilitation and contribution to society, wishes of the prosecution, defense, and the victim's family, maturity level, degree of malice and forethought and degree of participation, aggravating circumstances or accompanying crimes, family environment and related circumstances such as a history of mistreatment, literacy and educational level, psychosocial and neurological development, and many others. For now, a sentence of life in prison without parole could still be handed down for aggravated first degree murder if it was determined after that process to be warranted. The decision was announced on the next-to-last day of the 2011-12 term. Their reasoning was because it violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.