Parole Board releases 2nd man convicted of murder as juvenile

/in , /by

By Maria Cramer

August 6, 2014 

The state Parole Board has for the second time agreed to release a 36-year-old man convicted of a murder committed as a juvenile, cheering advocates of shorter sentences but dismaying prosecutors and the victim’s family.

Anthony Rolon, who was 17 when he stabbed a 20-year-old man to death in 1996, should be released after spending one year in a lower security prison, the board said Wednesday in a 6-0 decision. Members said they were impressed with his good conduct in prison, the programs he joined as an inmate, and the remorse he showed for the slaying of Robert Botelho Jr. in New Bedford.

Read More 

Trauma in the trenches of gun-weary Chicago

/in , /by

By Trymaine Lee

August, 4, 2014 

CHICAGO— Keauna Wise knows death could come at any moment. So she waits with knots in her stomach and tears in her eyes. She’s often breathless, with anxiety that climbs from the bottom of her feet up into her gut.

Death comes often in her neighborhood on the far south side of this city, mostly by bullets. It comes with a bang on long, hot summer nights.

She’s already lost a brother, an 8-year-old niece and dozens of family friends to gun violence. One of her sons was wounded in a shooting last year, and just about two weeks ago another family friend took his last breath in her eldest daughter’s arms after being shot .

Read More 

 

Juvenile injustice

/in , /by

Editorial, Toledo Blade

July 15, 2014

Michigan Supreme Court justices got it badly wrong: A misguided and mean-spirited ruling last week would consign roughly 350 Michigan inmates to die in prison for crimes they committed as teenagers, some as young as 14. This is not what justice under the law should mean in a civilized society.

The 4-3 decision was inhuman and illogical, throwing the fate of the so-called juvenile lifers into the federal courts and Michigan Legislature, which until now has acted as irrationally and callously on this issue as the state Supreme Court.
Read More

White House “Champions of Change” Program Honors Jesuit Father Greg Boyle

/in , /by

Jesuits News Detail

July 9, 2014

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle has been recognized by the White House as a “Champion of Change” for his Los Angeles-based gang intervention program, Homeboy Industries. On June 30, Fr. Boyle accepted an award in Washington, D.C., for his work with Homeboy, now in its 25th year.

Along with Fr. Boyle, 14 others were honored for their efforts to “help those with criminal records reenter society with dignity and viable employment opportunities,” according to a White House press release.

Read More

Iowa Supreme Court rules against mandatory sentences

/in , /by

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in Iowa v. Lyle that mandatory sentences for children are unconstitutional under the Iowa Constitution.

The Court relied on the reasoning in Miller v. Alabama and Graham v. Florida to hold that a child facing a prison term is entitled to an individualized sentencing hearing during  which the factors listed in Miller are considered, including their age, maturity, role in the crime, and potential for rehabilitation.  This means a sentence cannot just be mandatorily imposed upon them without consideration of the unique factors of childhood.

National Association of Counties condemns JLWOP

/in , /by

The National Association of Counties, the only national organization that represents county governments in the United States, has taken an official position against sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The organization approved a resolution against the practice during its annual conference last week in New Orleans. NACo joins a growing, diverse group of organizations calling for reform to this extreme sentencing practice, which the U.S. alone imposes on our children.

“In too many states in our country, children are sentenced to life in prison without hope of ever being released,” said Dakota County, MN Commissioner Nancy Schouweiler, who sponsored the resolution. “We know that children are impulsive and immature and that they have a unique capacity to change and be reformed. It is the role of government to hold children accountable in age-appropriate ways and to ensure they have opportunities to prove that they are more than the worst thing they have ever done.”

The NACo resolution states, “NACo supports eliminating life without parole as a sentencing option for children. We support just and age-appropriate accountability measures for children that will ensure that every child, regardless of offense, is given a meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation. We therefore, call upon State Legislatures across the country and the U.S. Congress to enact legislation that abolishes life without parole for children and provides them with meaningful and periodic sentencing reviews. These legislative changes should be applied both retroactively and prospectively so that no child is allowed to have their human rights violated because of when they were sentenced.”

“The National Association of Counties has taken an important stand against 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 eliminate the practice of sentencing our children to die in prison.”

Brain science has determined that children possess less capacity and adults to control their impulses, think through the consequences of their actions or avoid press from peers and adults. Children also possess a unique capacity for growth and change.

The U.S. Supreme Court, drawing on this research, has ruled three times in the last decade that children are “constitutionally different” from adults and should not be subject to our nation’s harshest penalties.

Voices: Holding hope despite disappointment

/in /by
anita colon-small

Anita Colon

My brother was given a sentence of life without parole for a crime he was convicted of participating in on his 16th birthday. That was more than 24 years ago, and since that time we have been fighting against this inhumane sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama should have brought a chance for justice to my brother and all those serving mandatory sentences of juvenile life without parole in Pennsylvania, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that Miller is not retroactive. Having my brother mired in the myriad judicial changes for the past decade has been a roller coaster—so many ups and downs, and after too many rides, you inevitably become weak and dizzy.

To adequately relay my feelings about the denial of retroactivity in Pennsylvania, I have to go back to where this journey to justice really began gaining traction, which is the Graham v. Florida decision in 2010 that said that children convicted of non-homicides cannot receive life-without-parole sentences. This is when the first feelings of hope began to sink in.

Then when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Miller and I was able to witness the oral argument I cried tears of sadness and excitement and felt the first true sense of impending justice. When that decision came down saying that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, we thought, “This is what we’ve been saying; this is what we’ve been fighting for.” I was trying to call my children to relay the good news, but I found it so hard to speak between sobs. It brought an astounding feeling of redemption. There’s no higher authority in our land, and they said that this is law. We were validated and justice was here!

My family and I were filled with excitement and relief. Even my brother was cautiously optimistic. The thought of the decision not being deemed retroactive never, ever came into my mind. Even after the whispers of retroactivity challenges began, we dismissed them as just rumors since the ruling was so clear.

And then the Cunningham v. Pennsylvania decision came down in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court—that Miller was not retroactive in Pennsylvania, and my brother and nearly 500 others would keep their life sentences. It was a blow harder than any outcome in Miller could have ever been. For Pennsylvania’s decision to come down against us—Pennsylvania with the most juvenile lifers in the country—was the worst sense of injustice I have ever felt. I thought that as a country and as Pennsylvanians we had learned so much since then. Justice should not depend on what state you’re from.

Next the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up the Cunningham case for review. After Roper v. Simmons in 2005 (eliminating the death penalty for children) and Graham in 2010, my family and other family members had embraced the work of the justices, so we were very hurt and very betrayed. For Cunningham, both sides of the issue were fighting for the Court to grant review; I truly was expecting the Court to take the case up.

Legislation also has passed that left so much to be desired. It’s disappointing to be in a state that wants to fight any sort of change to our system, which has been proven to be unjust and unfair. Now our only hope is that the Supreme Court will clarify retroactivity by taking up another case.

My brother was really disappointed, though he feels confident that in the end we will prevail—that justice will prevail. We’re on the right side of history and this is a legitimate human rights issue. People on the outside fighting for him keep him strong and focused.

Sometimes I have to take a step back from all the disappointments that we’ve faced over the past few years and instead look overall at the progress that’s been made. That’s really what helps; that’s what allows me to get back up in the morning, the next day, after another setback. I think about the Roper decision coming down nearly 10 years ago, in 2005. From 2005 to 2010 there was no progress—five years of nothing!  And then in 2010 we had Graham, and in 2012, Miller. I look back and I see where we have come. It’s taken longer than I would like and longer than the 500 juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania would like, but I very firmly believe that we are on the path to righting a wrong.

Signs of hope and justice two years after Miller v. Alabama

/in , /by

By Jody Kent Lavy
July 8, 2014

Early one morning a few weeks ago, the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth team boarded a bus to New York for a re-sentencing hearing for a young man who was sentenced as a child to mandatory life without parole.

Angel was sentenced after he was charged and convicted in federal court for his role in a gang-related homicide after he, at age 15, rode his bike around the block as the lookout outside the home of a man who became the victim in an execution-style killing. Two years after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Miller v. Alabama, which found that it is unconstitutional to impose automatic life-without-parole sentences on children, I find myself reflecting on the hearing as a poignant illustration of where we are in this movement to establish fair sentencing for children.

Read more

On juvenile lifer sentencing, will Massachusetts do the right thing?

/in , /by

By Jean Trounstine, Truthout 
July 7, 2014

There’s a crisis in juvenile justice in Massachusetts. The Senate is poised to pass its version of Bill H.4184, which aims to keep juveniles who are sentenced to first-degree murder locked up for 20 to 30 years – before they get a shot at parole. The bill, which passed the Democratic House on June 18 with a stunning 129-to-16 vote, would set back the state’s leadership on youth justice. Massachusetts is known for its excellent statewide juvenile courts, well-trained judges, a juvenile defense bar and one of the best Department of Youth Services in the country. But this bill is packed with ominous new measures that threaten the spirit of recent state and federal court rulings calling for meaningful opportunities for juveniles to transform.

Read more

Locking children up forever is not the answer

/in , /by

By Kim Odom
July 2, 2014

As pastors and parents of a child whose life was taken by gun violence, my husband and I have struggled with the pain of what that tragedy revealed. Our 13-year-old son, Steven, was shot and killed steps away from our home on October 4, 2007. We learned that two 17-year-olds (juveniles) and a 20 year-old (adult) were involved in the murder of our son.

It is unsurprising that after the Massachusetts SJC struck down the sentence of juvenile life without parole, there is a strong push from some legislators to pass a bill that creates a complicated “de facto” life in prison sentence, the result of which will mean that most youth convicted of murder will not have a reasonable opportunity for release for 40 years. The bill has passed the House and is under serious consideration in the Senate this week.

Read more