Buried Alive: The Constitutional Question of Life Without Parole for Juvenile Offenders Convicted of Homicide

Abstract

In a string of recent cases, the Supreme Court has recognized the legal effect of juvenile defendants’ diminished culpability. This has led to a shift towards a jurisprudence that protects juvenile offenders from the most severe penalties. This Note argues that, since Graham v. Florida, juvenile life without parole is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, regardless of the offense. It first traces the development of contemporary juvenile justice, looking to the first system in New York and to early Supreme Court decisions regarding procedural due process rights for juvenile defendants. Next, the Note looks to the distinction that Eighth Amendment case law has made between capital and noncapital offenses and the abandonment of this distinction in Graham. It analyzes the two mandates from Graham and argues that the first mandate, that the court must consider youth as a mitigating factor in handing down a sentence, applies beyond sentencing considerations. The second mandate requires lower courts to guarantee the possibility of release of juvenile defendants, regardless of the severity of the offense or sentence. In the final Part, this Note applies the logic of Graham to State v. Ninham, a recent Wisconsin Supreme Court case. The author finds that juvenile life without parole is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s bar on cruel and unusual punishment in all circumstances, and this conclusion must inevitably disturb the current sentencing structure of the entire criminal justice system.