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"A Life Term for Rape at 13: Cruel and Unusual?"

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is the headline of this latest piece by Adam Liptak in the New York Times.  The article is focused on this case of Joe Sullivan, whose cert petition I posted in this recent entry.  Here are excerpts from the Times article: In 1989, someone raped a 72-year-old woman in Pensacola, Fla. Joe Sullivan was 13 at the time, and he admitted that he and two older friends had burglarized the woman?s home earlier that day. But he denied that he had returned to commit the rape.... The trial lasted a day and ended in conviction. Then Judge Nicholas Geeker, of the circuit court in Escambia County, sentenced Mr. Sullivan to life without the possibility of parole. ?I?m going to send him away for as long as I can,? Judge Geeker said...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 02, 2009 (boomark / email).