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Rick Casey on Juvenile Sentencing

By Steve Hall

His column in today's Houston Chronicle is, "That liberal legislature ... in Texas."The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday barred sentences of life without parole for juveniles who committed crimes other than murder. The vote was 5-4. This will surprise a lot of Texans ? and even more outsiders ? but a year ago the Texas Legislature went the Supreme Court one farther.It barred sentences of life without parole for juveniles who commit capital murder.And the vote wasn't even as close as the Supreme Court's.The Senate passed the bill 30-1. The House passed it 124-21, a ratio of 6-1.And Gov. Rick Perry signed it.This is a rare case of the U.S. Supreme Court following Texas, not vice-versa.The Supreme Court gave hope to 129 prisoners serving sentences of life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles, but not a single one was in Texas...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).