WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional for states to require juveniles convicted of murder to be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

The 5-4 decision is in line with others the court has made, including ruling out the death penalty for juveniles and life without parole for young people whose crimes did not involve killing. Monday's decision left open the possibility that judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder, but said state laws cannot automatically impose such a sentence.

We "hold that mandatory life without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on 'cruel and unusual punishment,'" said Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote the opinion for the majority.

She was joined in that opinion by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

"Neither the text of the Constitution or our precedent prohibits legislatures from requiring that juvenile murderers be sentenced to life without parole," Roberts said.

The decision came in the robbery and murder cases of Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson, who were 14 when they were convicted.

Miller was convicted of killing a man in Alabama. Jackson was convicted of being an accomplice in an Arkansas robbery that ended in someone else committing murder.


http://news.yahoo.com/court-no-more-life-without-parole-juveniles-141228376.html


this is a plus for humanity

I always thought it weird that we insist children dont know what they are doing when it comes to sex so any sex with such children by an adult is seen as deviant

YET

when children commit crime, we seem so completely willing to hold them to adult expectation and understanding


this lets kids have some shot at turning their life around ,,,,

I can see both sides of this.

14 is young to be looking at the rest of your life in jail, but the guy they murdered got an immediate death sentence with zero possibility of living another minute.


Humanity would be better served if we could figure out why two 14 year olds would murder someone and work to change whatever it was that caused such depraved and inhumane behavior.

Can't they at least make iPods or something and contribute back to society?

For the time they're in, they will make for great bed partners to a hard-time criminal.

With a little luck, they will get wasted before they are re-released to murder some more.

Im more of a fan of preventive policy than reactionary policy as well,,,

but we probably need a balance of both