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SCOTUS grants cert in Sullivan, juve LWOP case

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this order list, among the cases in which the Supreme Court granted cert this morning is Sullivan v. Florida.  As detailed in posts linked below, Sullivan involves an Eighth Amendment challenge a sentence of life without parole given to a rape defendant who was only 13 years old(!) at the time of the crime.  For a variety of reasons, Sullivan has the potential to be the biggest non-capital Eighth Amendment case decided by the Supreme Court in many years. Interestingly, as noted here by SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court also took up a companion juve LWOP case, Graham v. Florida, which apparently involves an life sentence for a non-murder crime committed by a 17-year-old offender.  As suggested in the prior paragraph, Sullivan and Graham are likely to be the cases to watch for sentencing fans in the next SCOTUS Term (which, of course, is going to involve a brand new Justice)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).