Legal Commentary

Michigan Should Repeal Juvenile Sentences of Life Without Parole

By TChris

In Michigan, more than 300 juveniles have been sentenced to life without parole. More than 300 kids thrown away. Michigan should give them a chance to earn their freedom.

Michigan's notorious juvenile lifer law has brought international shame to the state and contradicted common sense, legal traditions and public opinion. ... Bills now before the Senate Judiciary Committee would prohibit life-without-parole sentences for juveniles and give those now serving those sentences a chance at parole after 10 years.

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These bills would not, by themselves, release anyone. But they would at least give prisoners with life sentences as juveniles a chance at parole. That's a reasonable change, consistent with medical research that shows that teenagers are more impulsive and unstable than adults, even without the abuse and neglect many have suffered.

Life without parole is the maximum adult penalty in Michigan. But juveniles don't have the same legal rights and responsibilities as adults because they lack the maturity and judgment to handle them. Nor should they generally pay the same consequences for crimes. That's partly why a conservative U.S. Supreme Court threw out the death penalty for juveniles.

Politicians of both parties have pandered to "lock 'em up" voters since the Age of Reagan. Swollen prison budgets expose the pricetag of pandering. The greater cost is the lost value of those individuals who, regardless of their actions as juveniles, are capable of growing into a mature, responsible adulthood. Denying the possibility of rehabilitation and forgiveness to a child devalues all children. Michigan should repeal life without parole for juvenile offenders.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 31, 2008 (boomark / email).