By The Imprint Staff Reports, The Imprint, March 16, 2021
Washington is the first state in the nation that may no longer automatically sentence young adults convicted of murder to life in prison without parole for killings they committed when they were 18, 19 or 20 years old.
The 5-4 ruling by the state’s highest court extended the logic that the U.S. Supreme Court used when it held that anyone younger than 18 cannot be given mandatory life sentences for murder, holding that science has shown that the brain isn’t fully developed at that age.
The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that two men who were 19 and 20 when they killed their victims can still be sentenced to life without parole, but not before their trial judges first consider whether that’s fair, given their youthfulness at the time of the killing.
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