ent, of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, and Beth Colgan, of the Institutions Project at Columbia Legal Services, write that no other country except America sentences juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole, a practice banned by the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child.
The authors cite the significance of research showing that juvenile offenders should be treated differently than adults:
Youth do not have adult levels of judgment, impulse control, or ability to assess risks. There is widespread agreement among child development researchers that young people who commit crimes are more likely to reform their behavior and have a better chance of rehabilitation than adults.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering two cases involving the constitutionality of sentencing youth to life in prison without parole. Oral argument in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida were heard in November and decisions in the cases are expected soon. For more on the constitutional issue in those cases, see a guest post from constitutional law expert Charles Ogletree here.
ncing," but that Justice Samuel Alito seemed to side with Florida, which is arguing that that the juveniles' punishment does not raise constitutional concerns.
Petitioners Joe Sullivan and Terrance Graham were both sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for offenses that did not involve homicide in Florida. Sullivan was 13 years old when he was sentenced to spend the remainder of his natural life in prison. Graham received life without parole for a parole violation at 17 years old. He was sentenced without a trial.