New review on youths’ punishment

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By Lyle Denniston

For the third time in recent years, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider putting a limit on the severity of punishment for youths who commit serious crimes before they are 18 years old.  Two youths who were 14-year-olds at the time of their crimes — one in Alabama, the other in Arkansas — have asked the Justices to rule that it is unconstitutional to impose on a minor a sentence of life in prison without a chance for parole in a murder case.  In one of the cases, there is an added claim that such a sentence may not be imposed if the youth did not personally kill the victim or intend that someone be killed.

The Court has shown a special concern for youthful criminals, treating them as less responsible than adults for what they do and therefore entitled to more leniency when they are sentenced.  In 2005, it barred the death penalty for those who commit murder when they are minors.  In 2010, it barred life-without-parole sentences for minors who commit serious crimes, but that ruling only dealt with non-homicide crimes.  The grant on Monday will now consider extending that second ruling to youths convicted of murder.

The cases are Miller v. Alabama (docket 10-9646) and Jackson v. Hobbs (10-9647); the Court granted review of the two separately, but said that it will hear oral arguments in them back-to-back.  Those hearings are likely to be in late February, with the decision before next summer.

 

Read the review article here.

Why Michigan has more juvenile life sentences than almost any other state

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By John Barnes

They were teenagers once, and did horrible things, or were in horrible places. People died. Sometimes at their hands; sometimes not. But they were present.

And for that, they were told they will die, too, in prison.

These are Michigan’s “juvenile lifers,” although most are much older now, sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. And there are more in this state than in almost any other.

There is Keith Maxey, wounded in a drug theft gone bad. He was unarmed and fled, but another man was killed. A jury found the 16-year-old just as responsible as if he had pulled the trigger. Except the shooter got a lighter sentence.

There, too, are identical twins David and Michael Samel, arrested at 17 for beating a pool hall worker to death. Michael pleaded to a reduced charge and was released in 2009. David took his chances with a jury. He is in the 30th year of life without parole.

And there is Cedric King, 14 when he helped set up a marijuana thief to be killed. Except the court thought he was a year older, and the victim survived. Still, confusion has persisted for years over whether he was given the state’s severest punishment, or something less, a Booth Michigan investigation found.

As a federal judge in Detroit weighs whether such sentences are unconstitutional, reporters from six newspapers and MLive.com spread out across the state.

 

Read the entire article here.

U.S. Supreme Court's new review on youths’ punishment

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By Lyle Denniston

For the third time in recent years, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider putting a limit on the severity of punishment for youths who commit serious crimes before they are 18 years old.  Two youths who were 14-year-olds at the time of their crimes — one in Alabama, the other in Arkansas — have asked the Justices to rule that it is unconstitutional to impose on a minor a sentence of life in prison without a chance for parole in a murder case.  In one of the cases, there is an added claim that such a sentence may not be imposed if the youth did not personally kill the victim or intend that someone be killed.

The Court has shown a special concern for youthful criminals, treating them as less responsible than adults for what they do and therefore entitled to more leniency when they are sentenced.  In 2005, it barred the death penalty for those who commit murder when they are minors.  In 2010, it barred life-without-parole sentences for minors who commit serious crimes, but that ruling only dealt with non-homicide crimes.  The grant on Monday will now consider extending that second ruling to youths convicted of murder.

The cases are Miller v. Alabama (docket 10-9646) and Jackson v. Hobbs (10-9647); the Court granted review of the two separately, but said that it will hear oral arguments in them back-to-back.  Those hearings are likely to be in late February, with the decision before next summer.

 

Read the rest of the article here.

Healing & Hope: A Celebration

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For more information about Healing & Hope: A Celebration, go to:  http://fairsentencingofyouth.givezooks.com/events/healing-hope-a-celebration

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Keynote Speaker:

Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal justice system. Since graduating from Harvard Law School and the Harvard School of Government, he has assisted in securing relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, advocated for poor people and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice. He has represented many individuals serving juvenile life without parole to challenge this harsh practice, and has served as a national leader in reform efforts.

Honorees:

Linda White is a retired professor, advocate of restorative justice, and expert in death counseling. She lives in Texas. Her 26-year-old daughter, Cathy, was raped and murdered by two teens in 1986. Since then, Linda participated in a victim-offender dialogue with Gary Brown, one of the youth convicted in her daughter’s case. Gary was released last year and Linda sees it as a “memorial” to her daughter that Gary is out of prison and doing well. She is a vocal opponent to the practice of sentencing youth to life without parole, and testified before the House of Representatives on this issue in June 2009.

Mary Johnson founded From Death to Life, an organization focused on forgiveness among mothers who have lost children to violence and mothers who have lost their children to the prison system. In 1993, her son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot and killed by a teen, Oshea Israel, whom she has since forgiven and sees as a member of her family.

Oshea Israel lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a teen he got into a fight at a party which ended when he shot and killed Laramiun Byrd. Now 34 years old, he has finished serving his prison sentence for second-degree murder and has turned his life around with the support of Laramiun’s mother, Mary Johnson.

Honorary Committee:

Charles Dutton, Emmy Award-winning Actor and Director

Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund

Peter Edelman, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

Wade Henderson, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

David Keene, Former chair of the American Conservative Union

Laura Murphy, American Civil Liberties Union

Pat Nolan, Prison Fellowship

Dr. Charles Ogletree, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Harvard Law School

Representative Cedric L. Richmond, Louisiana, 2nd District

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland and Board member of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

Tommy Wells, District of Columbia City Councilman, Ward 6

 

Contact Allison Conyers at 757-870-8749.


Herman thankful for forgiveness

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By Roseann Moring, The Omaha World-Herald

When Nebraska inmate Jeremy Herman is released sometime over the next year, he’ll have a lot to learn.

After 19 years behind bars, he has never used the Internet. The first and only time he saw an iPod, he thought it was a CD player’s remote control.

But Herman, now 36 and serving his last year for a kidnapping that resulted in his friend’s death, says his most important change came long before he learned last week that he would be released instead of serving the life sentence he agreed to.

It was years ago — he can’t recall the date — when he heard he had been forgiven by his victim’s mother, Mona Schlautman.

On Oct. 8, 1992, Herman picked up Schlautman’s son, Jeremy Drake, in a Mustang. An acquaintance, Christopher Masters, sat in the back seat.

Herman and Drake were close — one year apart in school, they worked together and slept over at each other’s houses. Had Drake survived, Herman says now, he could have changed the world.

“This is a kid that could have been a political figure,” he said.

The goal of the trip was to learn who had stolen Herman’s car stereo speakers. The plan, inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, was to drive Drake around and scare him into talking.

Click here to read more on The Omaha World-Herald website.

Beautiful Brains

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By David Dobbs, National Geographic

Although you know your teenager takes some chances, it can be a shock to hear about them.

One fine May morning not long ago my oldest son, 17 at the time, phoned to tell me that he had just spent a couple hours at the state police barracks. Apparently he had been driving “a little fast.” What, I asked, was “a little fast”? Turns out this product of my genes and loving care, the boy-man I had swaddled, coddled, cooed at, and then pushed and pulled to the brink of manhood, had been flying down the highway at 113 miles an hour.

“That’s more than a little fast,” I said.

He agreed. In fact, he sounded somber and contrite. He did not object when I told him he’d have to pay the fines and probably for a lawyer. He did not argue when I pointed out that if anything happens at that speed—a dog in the road, a blown tire, a sneeze—he dies. He was in fact almost irritatingly reasonable. He even proffered that the cop did the right thing in stopping him, for, as he put it, “We can’t all go around doing 113.”

Click here to read more on the National Geographic website.

California: Uniting to End Life Without Parole for Youth

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By Daniel Gutman

Michelle Murray traveled nearly 400 miles – from Los Angeles to Sacramento – on a one day trip late last month to speak with her elected officials about the importance of Senate Bill 9. The California Assembly was only days away from voting on SB 9, a bill to end life without parole prison sentences for youth in California.

Michelle wasn’t alone on her trip. With her were other loved ones of people serving and family members who have fallen victim to violence. Together, along with a diverse coalition of faith leaders, students, and advocates, these families were united in their call for fair and just sentencing of youth.

Across the United States, more than 2,600 people have been condemned to prison for the rest of their lives, with no hope of ever being released, for crimes committed as youth. Nearly 300 of these individuals, including Michelle’s brother, are in prisons across California.
In the three weeks that I spent in Sacramento leading up to the vote on SB 9, I had the privilege of working alongside fierce advocates like Michelle. I was inspired by their dedication and unified message throughout the campaign, even during times of uncertainty. This unity was especially apparent during the final stretch before the vote as faith leaders held a day of prayer and action, youth from Los Angeles took an overnight bus to Sacramento to speak with their elected officials, and people from around the state and nation literally jammed legislators’ phone lines with calls of support.

Click here to read more on the Justice Policy Blog.

Despite brother's murder, HSU student supports second chance for teen offenders

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By Jessica Cejnar, The Times-Standard

Three days before he died, Terrell Sherrills encouraged his sister Oya to attend Humboldt State University.

The 18-year-old from Watts had just finished his first semester at HSU and was home for the holidays. One night in January 2004, Terrell Sherrills attended a party and was shot. According to Oya Sherrills, who now lives in the Bay Area, the person who shot her brother was a 16-year-old gang member who has never been arrested.

”I was extremely distraught and depressed,” she said, adding that she was 15 years old at the time. “We were close. It took me a long time, years, to really work through my pain around it. But at the same time, I would always hesitate — and I know that he would want me to hesitate — in using the tragedy of his death to justify the injustice of exorbitant prison sentences for youth.”

Click here to read the full article.

Should juveniles go to prison for life?

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There’s a debate today in Minneapolis that deals with a very difficult moral question: Are there some crimes so heinous we should lock the perpetrator up and throw away the key, even if that person is a juvenile? The University of St. Thomas School of Law will host the debate over whether life without parole is ever appropriate for juvenile criminals.

MPR’s Phil Picardi spoke with St. Thomas Law Professor Mark Osler, who says juvenile criminals always deserve an opportunity for parole. He’ll be debating Jeanne Bishop. She’s a public defender in Cook County, Illinois, which includes the city of Chicago.

Click here to listen to the debate on MPR’s website.

Accused boy faces juvenile trial

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By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jordan Brown, who was just 11 when he was charged with killing his father’s pregnant fiancee, will be tried as a juvenile, a Lawrence County judge ruled Tuesday, ending more than two years of uncertainty about how the boy’s high-profile case would be handled.

Transferring the case to juvenile court “will serve the public interest” because Jordan is “amenable to treatment, supervision and rehabilitation as a juvenile,” Common Pleas Judge Dominick Motto wrote in his decision.

The ruling means Jordan, who turns 14 this month, will face the equivalent of a trial before a judge, rather than jurors. That could happen as soon as next month, said Dennis A. Elisco, one of the boy’s attorneys. Prosecutors say Jordan fatally shot Kenzie Houk, 26, with a 20-gauge shotgun as she slept in their New Beaver farmhouse in February 2009. Her unborn son, who was nearly full term, also died.

Jordan can no longer be tried in adult court, where if he had been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have been the youngest person in the country to serve a life sentence in prison without parole. If he is found delinquent in juvenile court, the state cannot incarcerate him beyond his 21st birthday.

Click here to read the full article on The Pittsburgh Post Gazette website.