Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair
Are Life Sentences Appropriate for Juvenile Offenders?
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The United States Supreme Court finally addressed for the first time a long debated issue: whether juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole (“LWOP”), a sentence normally reserved for the very worst offenders. In its decision finding that LWOP for juvenile offenders was unconstitutional, the Court pointed out that only six states in this country do not have LWOP for juveniles. Fortunately, the State of Texas is one of those states. The Legislature last year eliminated the penalty provision from its sentencing practices.
But thirty-seven other states and the District of Columbia permit juveniles to be sentenced to LWOP for non-homicide offenses under specific circumstances. Seven other states allow LWOP for juveniles but only for homicide crimes. Federal law permits juveniles as young as 13 to be sentenced to LWOP while a child as young as 5 years of age can be sentenced to LWOP in Florida, according to the Supreme Court.
The court’s recent decision addressed only those juveniles sentenced to LWOP for non-homicide offenses—a penalty available in only twelve states as pointed out by the court. Therefore life sentences, with possibility of parole are still permissible.
The court was independently able to identify a total of 129 juveniles serving LWOP in those twelve states with 77 of them being in the State of Florida.
The case before the court originated from Florida. It involved the LWOP imposed on Terrance Jamar Graham. The court outlined Graham’s troubled personal and criminal history. You can be the judge of whether you think a LWOP was the appropriate sentence. More to the point, you can decide whether you think the State of Florida—or any of the other eleven states that have LWOP for juveniles committing non-homicide offenses—can keep juvenile offenders like Terrance Graham locked up for the rest of their lives because the Supreme Court held that life imprisonment per se is not “cruel and unusual punishment.” The court pointedly noted that an offender sentenced to life imprisonment as a juvenile has a right to parole eligibility but not to parole release itself, thus the potential for “natural life” incarceration. You be the judge.
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Texas Takes Small First Step Towards Humane Treatment, Punishment for Youthful Offenders
By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
The Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (TCDLA) releases every two years after each session of the Texas Legislature a summary of new or amended laws enacted during the legislative session. This year Kristin Etter (TCDLA’s Voice of the Defense) has provided this continuing education service from TCDLA to criminal defense attorneys throughout the state. It is not only a continuing education service but an invaluable research tool as well. This blog over the next couple months will feature in depth articles about the most significant pieces of legislation that emanated out of the 2009 Texas Legislature and their potential impact on the state’s criminal justice system with special appreciation to the TCDLA.
For example, one of the most significant changes in our laws was the Legislature decision to eliminate life without parole for juvenile offenders who are certified as adults under Texas Penal Code § 54.02 and tried for capital murder under Texas Penal Code § 12.31. The Legislature amended the Texas Government Code § 504.145 to allow for parole eligibility for juveniles tried as adults after a period of 40 years.
This legislation is significant because the U.S. Supreme Court in two consolidated Florida cases, Terrance Jamar Graham and Joseph Sullivan, both of whom received life sentences without the benefit of parole, has decided this term to decide the issue of whether life without parole for juveniles tried as adults is unconstitutional as being cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. At age 16, Graham was convicted of being an accomplice to an armed burglary and attempted armed robbery—the only criminal offenses he had ever committed in his life—and sentenced to life without parole. At age 13, Joe Sullivan was convicted of a rape committed following a house burglary and sentenced to life without parole with there being serious doubts about whether Sullivan was the actual rapist.
As of July 2009, the Washington, D.C.-based The Sentencing Project (Nellis, Ashley and King, Ryan S. No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America) reported that there are 140,610 individuals serving a life sentence in the nation’s prison system (one in every 11 prisoners). Of those lifers, 6,807 of them are juveniles tried as adults with 1,755 (or 25.8%) of them being juvenile life sentences without parole (JLWOP). (more…)
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