Petitions of the week
Justices asked to review Arizona’s life-without-parole sentencing scheme for youths
The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.
Twelve years ago, in Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court declared that mandatory sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for offenders who were under the age of 18 when they committed their crimes violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. This week, we highlight petitions that ask the court to consider, among other things, whether Arizona’s sentencing law for juvenile offenders convicted of first-degree murder violates Miller because, although the law allows for the possibility of release, the state abolished parole for homicide in 1994.
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