Iowa’s Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Friday that a sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders convicted of first-degree murder amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the state’s constitution.
Here’s the ruling, in part:
In sum, we conclude that sentencing courts should not be required to make speculative up-front decisions on juvenile offenders’ prospects for rehabilitation because they lack adequate predictive information supporting such a decision. The parole board will be better able to discern whether the offender is irreparably corrupt after time has passed, after opportunities for maturation and rehabilitation have been provided, and after a record of success or failure in the rehabilitative process is available.
The court’s decision remanded the case, State of Iowa vs. Isaiah Richard Sweet, to the district court for re-sentencing.
At issue was the case of Sweet, who was 17 when he killed his grandparents at their home in 2012. A lower-court judge sentenced him in 2014 to life in prison without parole, saying Sweet was “extremely dangerous” and unlikely to be rehabilitated.
[For more of this story, written by Krishnadev Calamur, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/nat...es-juveniles/484640/]
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