California Ruling Bans Youth Sentences Beyond Life Expectancy

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One hundred years ago yesterday, Virginia’s governor was “besieged” with pleas for clemency for 17-year-old Virginia Christian, scheduled to die that day in the state’s electric chair for murder. A century later, the California Supreme Court scheduled an opinion on a latter-day juvenile defendant facing what some say is a similar sentence. The century makes a difference in treatment of underage criminals. Christian, a black young woman, was headed to the electric chair in 1912 for “the murder of Mrs. Ida Virginia Belote, a frail white woman aged 72 years,” after a dispute over laundry the girl had not returned. According to a century-old story in the New York Times, the murder weapons were a poker, a cuspidor and a towel.

After High Court Decisions, States Slowly Lightening Juvenile Sentences

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As Supreme Court arguments from two key juvenile sentencing decisions trickle down through courts and legislatures nationwide, the heaviest sentences for juveniles may be on the verge of shedding some weight. “Graham and Miller put a constitutional ceiling on what states can do to kids,” argues Los Angeles attorney David Durchfort, continuing, “the big question now is what’s the safe zone? How far can they [states] go in punishing kids without giving them a second chance?”

Graham and Miller, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 and 2012 respectively, bar state laws that mandate life without parole sentences for juveniles. In both cases, the court said children are immature from a brain chemistry point of view. Therefore they are more corrigible and less culpable than adults and cannot rightfully be sentenced to life without parole until a judge takes that youthfulness into consideration.