Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence are the first-ever guidelines for representing children who face our country’s harshest penalty. These Guidelines were drafted in close collaboration with attorneys and advocates from across the nation. Read more about Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence
Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence are the first-ever guidelines for representing children who face our country’s harshest penalty. These Guidelines were drafted in close collaboration with attorneys and advocates from across the nation.
Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence are the first-ever guidelines for representing children who face our country’s harshest penalty. These Guidelines were drafted in close collaboration with attorneys and advocates from across the nation.
Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence are the first-ever guidelines for representing children who face our country’s harshest penalty. These Guidelines were drafted in close collaboration with attorneys and advocates from across the nation.
The United States was singled out Monday by a United Nations expert on torture for being the only country in the world that continues to sentence children to life in prison without parole.
“The vast majority of states have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release,” Juan Méndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, said in his report, before noting that the United States is the only country to continue the practice.
A sentence of life without parole means life and death in prison — a practice considered cruel and inhumane punishment for juveniles under both international and U.S. law.
by Natasja Sheriff
March 9, 2015
Ten years ago, our country took an important step to improve our justice system when the United States Supreme Court abolished the death penalty for juveniles.
It is long past time we extended the logic of that ruling and abolished life without parole sentences for juveniles as well.
In its landmark 2005 decision, Roper vs. Simmons, the court found that the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the execution of those whose crimes were committed under age 18 because their unique characteristics as children made them less culpable than adults.
By Robert Morgenthau
March 2, 2015
NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, has joined on to our Statement of Principles as a CFSY Official Supporter, helping grow the movement for age-appropriate sentencing for kids. NETWORK is a global leader in the Catholic movement for justice and peace, and lobbies, educates, and organizes around economic justice, immigration, healthcare, and incarceration issues. NETWORK focuses on placing the voices of those affected by these issues at the center of these discussions. NETWORK also is known for their Nuns on the Bus education tours, encouraging voter registration and participation.
The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth and NETWORK share the work of justice in sentencing, and both organizations work to amplify the voices and stories of those affected by the issues that we work to fix. NETWORK is a dedicated organization of people who we are thrilled to add to our movement. We are excited to partner with NETWORK moving forward!
Read NETWORK’s blog post about ending life-in-prison sentences for kids
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the nation’s forefront civil rights organizations, has signed on to our Statement of Principles as an Official Supporter of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. ADL was established in 1913 and has worked against anti-Semitism and for equality and justice worldwide for decades. They have drafted model hate crimes legislation, fought against online discrimination and hate, and have advocated for justice in immigration, women’s equality, LGBT rights, and much more.
Our work intersects in civil rights and justice for everyone, including those children we’ve sentenced to die in prison. ADL has a strong record of standing up for equality across communities, and we are proud to stand with them in doing so. We are delighted to call ADL a partner, and we look forward to the work we can do together in the future.
The American Bar Association (ABA), the country’s foremost legal membership organization representing nearly 400,000 prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and other lawyers, today approved a resolution calling for an end to the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without parole and urging “meaningful periodic opportunities for release.”
In approving this resolution, the ABA demonstrates its commitment to ensuring that children are held accountable in a way that provides them the opportunity to be rehabilitated and prove themselves deserving of a second chance. Passage also signals the ABA’s commitment to reforming our country’s juvenile sentencing laws to reflect child developmental science demonstrating that adolescents are still growing and changing, and recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming that children are “constitutionally different” from adults, and therefore less deserving of our harshest punishments.
The American Bar Association (ABA), the country’s foremost legal membership organization representing nearly 400,000 prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys and other lawyers, today approved a resolution calling for an end to the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without parole and urging “meaningful periodic opportunities for release.”
In approving this resolution, the ABA demonstrates its commitment to ensuring that children are held accountable in a way that provides them the opportunity to be rehabilitated and prove themselves deserving of a second chance. Passage also signals the ABA’s commitment to reforming our country’s juvenile sentencing laws to reflect child developmental science demonstrating that adolescents are still growing and changing, and recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court affirming that children are “constitutionally different” from adults, and therefore less deserving of our harshest punishments.
“With the adoption of Resolution 107C, the American Bar Association has sent a clear message to the legal community and policymakers across the country that children should never be sentenced to die in prison,” said ABA President, William C. Hubbard. “As the world’s foremost leader and defender of human rights, the United States should ban life without parole sentences for children – a severe violation of human rights. The ABA applauds those states that have already taken steps to reform their laws and urges other states to pass similar reforms as soon as practicable.”
The ABA approved the resolution during its Midyear Meeting in Houston, made up of 560 delegates from state, local and other bar associations and legal groups from across the country. In doing so, the ABA joins a growing movement among policy makers, opinion leaders and national organizations seeking an end to life-without-parole sentences for children, including the American Correctional Association, the National Probation and Parole Association, the National PTA, and that National Association of Counties. Significantly, the ABA resolution received a favorable vote from the U.S. Department of Justice when it was heard by the Criminal Justice Section last fall, making its position in opposition to life-without-parole for children public for the first time. The resolution was sponsored by Kelly Mitchell, executive director of the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School.
“Our sentencing strategies should focus on rehabilitating children and preparing them to re-enter society, rather than condemning them to die in prison,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University and a former official in the U.S. Department of Justice. “We can never know what a child will be like when he or she is an adult, so we need to check in on them to see if they have changed as they have grown and matured.”
The United States is the only country in the world known to sentence its children to die in prison. In addition, the U.S. and South Sudan are the only countries that have yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits the imposition of life-without-parole sentences upon children. Somalia ratified the treaty last month. Pope Francis also has called for an end to life sentences.
“We are thrilled to have the nation’s most respected legal organization add its voice in opposition to this unjust practice,” said Jody Kent Lavy, CFSY director & national coordinator. “Their partnership and the overwhelming support for establishing fair alternatives to life-without-parole sentences for children demonstrate that it is time now for the United States to join the rest of the world and stop sentencing our children to die in prison.”
Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (EIN 27-3761788) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
