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California appellate court finds juve LWOP sentence unconstitutional

By Douglas A. Berman

A helpful reader pointed me to an important ruling yesterday from a california appellate court finding a juvenile life sentence unconstitutional.  The ruling in In re Nunez, No. G040377 (Cal. App. 4th Dist. April 30, 2009) (available here), starts this way: Antonio de Jesus Nuñez filed a petition for habeas corpus in the California Supreme Court on grounds, inter alia, that his sentence of life in prison without parole (LWOP) for kidnapping for ransom (Pen. Code, § 209, subd. (a)) ? an offense he committed when he was 14 years old ? constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment or, alternatively, cruel or unusual punishment in violation of article I, section 17, of the California Constitution. Concluding Nunez established a prima facie case for relief, the Supreme Court ordered Nuñez's prison custodian to show cause before this court justifying the constitutionality of Nuñez's LWOP sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).