Imprisoning a Child for Life

The United States could be the only nation in the world where a 13-year-old child can be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, even for crimes that do not include murder. This grim distinction should trouble Americans deeply, as should all of the barbaric sentencing policies for children that this country embraces but that most of the world has abandoned.

The Supreme Court must keep the international standard in mind when it hears arguments on Monday in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida. The petitioners in both argue that sentencing children to life without the possibility of parole for a nonhomicide violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The court came down on the right side of this issue in 2005 when it ruled that children who commit crimes before the age of 18 should not be subject to the death penalty. The decision correctly pointed out that juveniles were less culpable because they lacked maturity, were vulnerable to peer pressure and had personalities that were still being formed.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the practice of executing 16- and 17-year-olds violated the Eighth Amendment, conflicted with “evolving standards of decency” and isolated the United States from the rest of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/opinion/09mon1.html?th&emc=th

should eliminate life sentences for juvenile offenders who did not kill. Many state budgets have been drained by the cost of housing too many inmates with too little space, and those states cannot really afford to pay for services for the law-abiding citizens of society. Instead there should be rehabilitation and education programs for such youngsters. (Roper v. Simmons was the 2005 case that eliminated the death penalty for juvenile offenders)