High Court to Rule on Constitutionality of Life Sentences for Minors Convicted of Murder

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The U.S Supreme Court is set to hear two cases that will test the constitutionality of sentencing juveniles convicted of murder to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Last month, the nation’s highest court agreed to review Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, two cases involving juveniles convicted of murder, to determine whether life imprisonment sentences for minors found guilty of homicide is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson were both found guilty of committing capital murder when they were 14. In 2003, Miller was found guilty of beating his neighbor, Cole Cannon, with a baseball bat and subsequently setting fire to his trailer home, where Cannon died from smoke inhalation. In 1999, Jackson, then an Arkansas youth, was charged with felony murder stemming from a video store robbery, in which an accomplice shot and killed clerk Laurie Troup.

Michelle Barclay and Patricia Buonodono On Danielle’s Story

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*Danielle was born HIV positive. Her mother, while constantly in and out of jail, abused alcohol while pregnant with her. Her father couldn’t manage to care for her, often forgetting to give her the HIV medications she needed to survive. She was a year old when she entered foster care. Her father had finally given up, dropping her off at an AIDS clinic, saying he couldn’t handle it any more.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Sale of Violent Video Games to Children

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The U.S. Supreme Court Monday struck down a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children in a 7-to-2 decision.  The majority opinion in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, equated video game content with that of books and films.

“Like the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world),” Justice Scalia wrote. “That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.”

Justice Scalia wrote that violence in literature and art have never been subject to government regulation. “Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,” he wrote. The California law defined violent video games as “patently offensive” when “the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being” and lacked “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. Stores that sold violent video games to minors would have been subject to $1,000 fines.

Supreme Court Gives Juveniles Protection in Police Interrogations

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[This article was reprinted with permission from YouthToday]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision that said a police officer must take a child’s age into consideration when determining whether to issue a Miranda warning to a juvenile suspect. The case, J.D.B.v. North Carolina is the latest in a string of cases in which the high court has applied protection to certain groups of juveniles. The court banned the juvenile death penalty in the 2005 Roper v. Simmons case, and last year ruled in Graham v. Florida that life without parole sentences were unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of any crime other than homicide. “This represents the court’s settled commitment to its view that kids are different,” said Marsha Levick, deputy director and co-founder of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center. “It’s just a further shoring up of that direction they’ve been moving in for last several years.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority, said, “So long as the child’s age was known to the officer, or would have been objectively apparent to a reasonable officer,” law enforcement and the courts must factor age into a decision to give a Miranda warning to a juvenile suspect.

Unique Study Says Evidence Backs Claims Violent Videogames Harm Teens

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For years, scientists have been studying whether violent video games are harmful to teens, but their findings have often contradicted one another. Now, three researchers have analyzed the data from experts who filed briefs in a U.S. Supreme Court case involving violent video games. The case, Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, decides whether California can ban the sale or rental of violent video games to kids under 18. They found that experts who believe violent video games are harmful to teens published more evidence than those who do not believe they are harmful. "The evidence suggests that those who argue violent video games are harmful have a lot more experience and stronger credentials than those who argue otherwise," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

Considering the Eighth Amendment and Juveniles

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A New York Times story examines the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future taking up the question of whether a life sentence for a killing committed by a juvenile constitutes a violation of the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. A year ago, the high court ruled such sentences did violate the Eighth Amendment in cases not involving a killing. According to the story by Adam Liptak and Lisa Faye Petak, such a decision would affect some 2,500 prisoners.  

High Court Hears Arguments in Juvenile Miranda Case

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case of a seventh-grade special education student who was interviewed by police without being read his Miranda rights. The boy, known as J.D.B. in court documents, was pulled out of class and questioned by police about a series of break-ins in a closed-door meeting five years ago.  During the 45-minute meeting, J.D.B. implicated himself in the crimes.  His attorney argues that J.D.B.’s rights were violated, however police say the boy was not in official custody at the time of his confession. Upon returning home from school, J.D.B. was met by police with a search warrant.  Authorities recovered stolen items from his home. The High Court will issue its decision, which could have far-reaching implications for juvenile justice, later in the year.

Upcoming Cases in U.S. Supreme Court Could Alter How the Constitution Affects Kids

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The Unites States Supreme Court is set to hear a number of cases this month that look at how the Constitution applies to children.  In each of the cases kids were questioned behind closed doors at their schools with no attorneys present and without being read their Miranda rights. In one of the cases an Oregon family is suing a case worker and deputy sheriff for “badgering” their 9-year old-daughter into accusing her father of molestation.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th District ruled that the girl’s questioning violated the Fourth Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable search and seizure,” according to a story in The Washington Post. Advocates say that the courts should treat children differently than adults.

Guns in Schools: New Push to Allow Concealed Weapons on Campus

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Georgia is one of nine states with proposals to allow guns on college campuses. Some states are even considering lifting their gun bans at K-12 public schools. HB 55 would allow gun owners to carry their weapons at colleges in Georgia. It is currently before the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee. A spate of lawsuits filed by gun-rights groups have opened the door to new debate about campus guns in Utah and Colorado, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Kansas and Arizona, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Random Drug Testing for 6th Graders

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Children as young as 11 face random drug testing in Belvidere, New Jersey, and the news has people talking across the country. The Board of Education approved the plan for Oxford Street School on Wednesday, and apparently many parents support the idea, even though no drug or alcohol abuse has ever been reported there. The program is voluntary  - both parents and children must sign up.  If a child tests positive for drugs, he or she will get counseling.  School officials promise no suspensions and no police reports.  Principal Sandra Szabocsik  thinks it will be a deterrent, telling WCBS-TV, "We're hoping that the students, if they're at a party or someone's house or just hanging out somewhere, that they'll say 'I don't want to get involved in drinking or using any drug because tomorrow could be a drug testing day,”

Random drug testing in schools is nothing new.