Justices To Decide On Sentences For Young Prison 'lifers'

In the 5-4 decision in 2012, Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority that judges weighing prison terms for young offenders must take into account "the mitigating qualities of youth," among them immaturity and the failure to understand fully the consequences of their actions. Through legislative action or court rulings, 18 states have allowed inmates like Montgomery to be given new prison sentences or to ask for their release, according to The Sentencing Project. Nine states abolished the sentence outright after the 2012 decision, bringing to 15 the number that prohibit life terms for those under 18, according to the Phillips Black Project, a public interest law group that focuses on the most severe prison sentences. Montgomery's lawyers say the court's decision to outlaw automatic life sentences for teenagers, its latest in a string of rulings about how children bear less responsibility than adults for the same crimes, is such a case. In response, Louisiana argues that the Alabama case should not be viewed as quite that important because the court only declared unconstitutional such sentences where judges lack discretion, and specifically did not forbid judges from sentencing juveniles to life in prison after consideration of individual circumstances. For every inmate like Montgomery, who became a boxing coach and worked in the prison's silkscreen department, the states supporting Louisiana point to people like James Porter, who was 16 when he killed a Michigan mother and her four children. Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree is calling on the justices to consider banning life-without-parole sentences altogether for people who commit even the most heinous crimes before their 18th birthdays.

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