The Supreme Court ruled that teens cannot be given a life sentence without a chance to gain their freedom.
The court was reviewing the case of Henry Montgomery, who killed a deputy in 1964 and received a life sentence. The court ruled 6-3 that teens should get a change at parole or resentencing despite the ruling of the court on their initial sentencing.
There was a similar case heard in 2012 by the Supreme Court and Justice Kagan said in the majority opinion that sentences must consider “the mitigating qualities of youth” (Al Jazeera). I believe that it is odd to treat people who are just under eighteen and just over eighteen slightly differently because of their age when they are pretty much equally able to make judgements about if they were doing something terrible or not. Furthermore, the definition of juvenile can vary from under sixteen to under nineteen depending on what state you are in.
Do you believe that juveniles should be allowed a second chance if they committed murder? Do you think that there should be a national age limit for juvenile or should state continue to be allowed to define what this loose term means?
