Juvenile sentencing case to end
on Feb 3, 2015 at 10:59 am
A case on life sentences for juveniles convicted of murder, set for review by the Supreme Court, will now be dismissed, under an agreement filed with the Justices on Monday. Toca v. Louisiana will be dismissed automatically, under the Court’s rules, after such an agreement.
The Justices were scheduled to hear the case on Monday, March 30, testing whether the Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama will be applied to cases that had become final before that ruling. The Miller decision barred states from imposing mandatory sentences of life without parole on defendants convicted of murders committed when they were minors. George Toca has now been released from prison after a plea bargain with prosecutors, so there is no longer an active legal controversy over his sentencing.
