Life Imprisonment in The United States - History - Minors

Minors

A few countries worldwide have allowed for minors to be given lifetime sentences that have no provision for eventual release. Countries that allow life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for juveniles include Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Cuba, Dominica, Israel, Nigeria, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and the United States. Of these, only the United States currently have minors serving such sentences. The University of San Francisco School of Law’s Center for Law & Global Justice conducted international research on the use of the sentence of life without parole for juveniles, and has found no cases outside of the United States in which the sentence is actually imposed on juveniles. As of 2009, Human Rights Watch has calculated that there are 2,589 youth offenders serving life without parole in the United States.

In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled that sentencing minors to automatic sentences of life without parole for crimes other than those involving a homicide (generally, first-degree murder, and usually with aggravating factors and/or accompanying felonies) violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment, in the case of Graham v. Florida. In finding that the US Constitution prohibits as cruel and unusual punishment a life without parole sentence for a juvenile in a non-homicide case, the US Supreme Court stated that “the overwhelming weight of international opinion against” juvenile life without parole “provide respected and significant confirmation for our own conclusions. In 2012, the Court considered whether to ban the automatic use of it completely as a sentence for minors, even in cases of aggravated first degree murder (what is usually called felony murder, capital murder, or murder with aggravating circumstances, and for an adult could mean a sentence of death or life without parole; the planned rape and murder of a young child or the planned murder of more than one person at a time- e.g., a couple in their house- would be two examples) where it is still a possibility. The Court had already made the death penalty unconstitutional for minors in 2005. In June 2012, the Court ruled that it could never be automatically used as a sentence for a minor (under 18), although the Court left room for it as a sentence that can eventually be given (for now) in certain first-degree murder cases once the judge has taken mitigating circumstances and other factors into account.

The United States' practice of sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole violates international standards of justice, as well as treaties to which the United States is a party. Each state must ensure that its criminal punishments comply with the United States’ international treaty obligations:

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the oversight Committee instructed the United States to: “ensure that no such child offender is sentenced to life without parole” “adopt all appropriate measures to review the situation of persons already serving such sentences.”

• The United Nations Convention Against Torture; the oversight Committee warned the United States that juvenile life sentences without the possibility of parole could constitute “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” for youth.

• The oversight body of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that juvenile life without parole is applied disproportionately to black minors, and the United States has done nothing to reduce what has become pervasive discrimination. The Committee recommended that the United States discontinue the use of this sentence against persons under the age of eighteen at the time the offense was committed, and review the situation of persons already serving such sentences.

The United Nations General Assembly has called upon governments to: “abolish by law, as soon as possible . . . life imprisonment without possibility of release for those below the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offense”.

International standards of justice hold that a juvenile life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is not warranted under any circumstances because juvenile offenders lack the experience, education, intelligence and mental development of adults and must be given a reasonable opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.