U.S. Supreme Court considers limiting life prison terms for youths

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The Supreme Court justices sounded today as though they are inclined to limit the use of life prison terms for young criminals who are not involved in a murder.

At issue was whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to tell a young teenager he will ‘die in prison’ for a crime less than murder.

Two Florida cases put a spotlight on the tough-on-crime laws of the last two decades that have caused violent juveniles to be tried as adults, and in some instances, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Recent studies found 109 prisoners nationwide are serving life terms for crimes such as assault or rape, and of them, 77 are in Florida.

A lawyer for a 17-year-old Jacksonville, Fla., youth who was given a life term for the armed robbery of a restaurant urged the justices to rule that no one younger than 18 can be given a life term without parole for a crime.

This sentences ‘rejects any hope. . . . It means you will stay in your cell and die there,’ said attorney Bryan Gowdy, who represents the youth, Terrance Graham. ‘Adolescents are different,’ he said, and they should not be treated as hardened, adult criminals.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he could go part way. He said such a stiff sentence could be seen as ‘disproportionate’ to the crime and the age of the offender. Roberts said this ‘case-by-case approach’ would permit judges to overturn some, but not all of these sentences.

But other justices appeared to agree with Gowdy that it made more sense to set a ‘categorical’ rule that a life term without parole for such crimes should be unconstitutional.

Only Justice Antonin Scalia defended Florida’s policy. He said the ban on ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment does not give the court grounds to second-guess the length of prison terms. ‘Death is different,’ he said, quoting earlier rulings by the court.

The second case heard today concerns a now-33-year-old Florida prisoner, Joe Sullivan, who was sentenced to life in prison at age 13 for the rape of an elderly woman.

Bryan Stevenson, Sullivan’s lawyer, said the average sentence for rape in Florida was 10 years in prison. He said his client has already served 20 years behind bars for his crime.

He urged the court to rule that it is unconstitutional to sentence a youth of 13 or 14 years old to prison for life, without parole, for any crime, including murder. He said that nationwide, nine prisoners are serving life terms for crimes committed at age 13. He added that Sullivan is one of only two in the nation who are in prison for crimes that did not involve murder.

Today’s argument suggests the justices are likely to overturn some of these sentences as unconstitutional.

It is not clear, however, that any ruling in these two cases will affect the more than 2,000 prisoners nationwide who were sent to prison as juveniles for crimes in which someone died. In many states, young criminals can be given life terms if they participated in a violent crime, such as a store robbery in which someone was killed.

The lawyers in the Florida cases stressed that their clients were not involved in homicides and therefore, should not have been sentenced to prison for life.

-- David Savage reporting from Washington.