132 S.Ct. 2455Following transfer from state juvenile court to state circuit court and affirmation of transfer, defendant was convicted in the Alabama Circuit Court, Lawrence County, A. Phillip Reich II, J., of capital murder committed when he was 14 years old. Defendant appealed his conviction and the resulting sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, affirmed. In another case, after affirmance of a defendant's convictions in Arkansas for capital felony murder and aggravated robbery committed at age 14, defendant petitioned for state habeas relief, challenging his sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. The Arkansas Circuit Court, Jefferson County, dismissed the petition. Defendant appealed. The Arkansas Supreme Court, affirmed. Certiorari was granted in each case.
Holding: The Supreme Court, Justice Kagan, held that mandatory life imprisonment 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 punishments.
Excerpt from Westlaw