Juveniles as young as 15 can be tried as adults in New Jersey, where they face a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted.
EMILEE LARKIN / October 26, 2021
TRENTON (CN) — The New Jersey Supreme Court pushed prosecutors on Tuesday to defend the constitutionality of a mandate that sends juveniles convicted of felony murder to prison for 30 years.
Fighting the scheme is James Comer who was 17 years old in 2000 when one of his accomplices to four armed robberies shot and killed a man. Comer was tried as an adult and convicted on all counts pertaining to the robberies, including the one for felony murder.
Initially Comer was sentenced to 75 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 68 years, which is more time than his accomplice who pulled the trigger received.
That sentence would have kept him in prison until he was at least 85 years old, but the New Jersey Supreme Court overturned it to comport with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which held it cruel and unusual punishment to mandate life sentences without parole for juveniles rather than weighing individual punishments on a case-by-case basis.
But even with sentence reduced to the 30-year mandatory minimum imposed by a state statute, Comer, now 38, says any mandatory prison sentence for a juvenile is unconstitutional. Back in May 2020, an intermediate appeals court shot him down.
“We are not arguing that any mandatory minimum for any defendant is unconstitutional,” defense attorney Lawrence Lustberg argued for Comer. “This is a mandatory minimum that applies to juveniles.”
Justice Lee Solomon pressed Lustberg on whether he was also challenging the state statute that allows juveniles 15 years old and up to be tried as adults.
“Aren’t you basically suggesting that the juvenile waiver statute is therefore unconstitutional as well,” asked Solomon.
Photo: Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and fellow members of the New Jersey Supreme Court. (Image via Courthouse News)
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