The Supreme Court, yesterday, banned the use of life without parole (LWOP) sentences for juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide. In Graham v. Florida it reversed the life without parole sentence of a Florida teenager who violated his probation for a home invasion robbery by committing an armed robbery.

The Court found that sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without parole for a crime other than homicide violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban of cruel and unusual punishment.

The court found that juveniles are less culpable because they have not reached full maturity. Because juveniles continue to change it is difficult if not impossible to determine whether they will become good citizens as they grow older or whether they are evil people who need to be kept behind bars for their entire life to protect society.

Courts generally look at two factors in determining Eighth Amendment violations. First they look at whether the sentence is disproportionate to the crime. Second they consider whether the crime is part of a category of crimes that society recognizes as no deserving of the severe sentence. In this case the United States is the only nation that imposes life without parole sentences on juveniles. While 37 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal government allow LWOP sentences for juveniles only eleven states and the Federal government have imposed such. There are currently 129 people in prisons sentenced to life without parole for juvenile crimes other than homicide. Seventy-seven of these have been sentenced in Florida. Considering the large number of juveniles convicted of serious felonies very few outside of Florida have been sentenced to life without parole. The Court considered this in determining society’s general opposition to such sentences.

Furthermore the Court found that LWOP sentences for juveniles charged with crimes other than homicide is not justified by any penological justification. The court found that while retribution is a genuine justification it is only valid if it is relative to the degree of culpability and since juveniles, due to a lack of maturity are less culpable than adults life without parole for crimes other than homicide do not fulfill a valid need for retribution. A second penological goal is deterrence but since the juvenile has not reached his/her full level of maturity it is impossible to say that LWOP acts as a deterrence. A third penolgical goal is incapacitation. But again it is not mandatory for a juvenile who may mature as time goes on. The fourth penological goal is rehabilitation but LWOP rules out any chance of rehabilitation.

The ban on LWOP sentences for juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide does not guarantee that all juveniles will be released. All it does is guarantee that they will have a chance to prove their maturity and be released. They will still be sentenced to life in prison and it will be up to the state’s parole system to determine whether or not to release them.