Supreme Court Rules Out Some Life Sentences For Juveniles

Unless they’ve killed someone, teenagers can’t be locked up for life without the chance of parole.

The ruling, by a 5-4 vote, comes today from the Supreme Court — which finds that a life sentence without parole for those young offenders would violate the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The ruling comes in the case of Terrance Graham, who was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17. Graham is now 11, and is in prison in Florida. The state holds more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for crimes other than homicide.

Writing for the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy said Graham has been denied a chance to show that he’s “fit to rejoin society,” because of a crime committed “while he was a child in the eyes of the law.”

In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas criticized the majority for imposing “its own sense of morality” on state lawmakers and voters who let state judges impose the life sentences.