Supreme Court Will Scrutinize Life Sentences for Juveniles

Taking up the case of a 13-year-old Florida boy sentenced to life in prison for rape 20 years ago, the Supreme Court will scrutinize harsh sentences for juveniles, the Washington Post reported Thursday. The case has attracted broad attention from activists and amicus briefs urging the court to strike down sentences of life in prison without parole for youthful crimes. It follows a bitterly divided 2005 ruling, in which the high court prohibited minors from receiving the death penalty, even for murder.

In majority opinion in the 2005 case, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The reality that juveniles still struggle to define their identity means it is less supportable to conclude that even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile is evidence of irretrievably depraved character. . . It would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed."

The court's doubt that juvenile criminals can be labeled as hopelessly depraved is inspiring optimism in opponents of life sentences.

Nationwide, 111 people are being held for life terms for youthful crimes that did not result in death, and 77 of them are in Florida, which has taken an especially harsh stance on juvenile justice since the 1990s. A brief filed by Louisiana and 18 other states argues that the harshest penalties are applied only in the most extreme cases, and that "rare does not mean unconstitutional."

Oral arguments in the case of Joe Harris Sullivan, the teen given a life sentence for rape 20 years ago, will begin in November.