Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Georgia Seclusion Room Suicide Case

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The Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a Georgia boy who committed suicide while in seclusion at a special education center in Gainesville. The high court rejected an appeal from Donald and Tina King who sued the Pioneer Regional Educational Service Agency. Their 13-year-old son Jonathan was part of the Alpine Program, an educational service for kids with autism and kids with severe emotional and behavioral problems.  He was placed in seclusion at the school for hours and killed himself in the seclusion room. The King family accused the school of violating his civil rights by failing to protect him from taking his own life. Georgia courts denied the Kings’ case because couldn’t prove that school staff deliberately neglected their son, according to a LexisNexis case briefing.

Flood of LWOP Cases Under Review

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The Supreme Court decision to ban life-without-parole sentences for juveniles who didn’t kill anyone has turned Florida’s legal system upside down, according to the Miami Herald. The Graham decision echoes the idea that because a teen’s brain is not fully developed, he or she deserves a chance to change. More than 100 cases in the state of Florida are eligible for resentencing, but the courts are struggling to figure out an alternative sentence to life without parole. Some state officials feel that certain prisoners have no chance of changing and will only reoffend if released on parole. Others feel this decision could force prisons to focus more on rehabilitation, especially for juvenile offenders, and lead to less recidivism.

Kid Lifers Test Supreme Court Ruling

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Appeals are starting to roll in on behalf of convicts sentenced as teenagers to life without parole. Some will try to test the intent of the Supreme Court decision from May. There are more than 2,000 juvenile lifers across the nation, and 90 percent were convicted of homicide, so on the surface the high court ruling would not apply to them.  But advocates are focused on the majority opinion. which argues adolescent brains are not fully developed and, therefore, they have limited responsibility for their criminal actions. So far, five juvenile lifers convicted in homicide cases have filed appeals in Pennsylania.

Teen Brains and Juvenile Justice

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A series of Supreme Court decisions is changing the direction of juvenile justice.  A report in the American Bar Association Journal digs into the impact of the Graham v. Florida ruling last May, and Roper v. Simmons from five years ago. Graham bars life-without-parole sentences for teens convicted of anything short of homicide. Roper bans the death penalty for children.  Both decisions were influenced by new research in developmental psychology and neuroscience that reveals how kids’ brains are different from adults’ brains when it comes to impulse control, decision-making and risk-taking. Researchers also maintain teenagers are more capable of long-term change than are adults. Reporter Bryan Stevenson talks with researchers, including Dr. Laurence Steinberg at Temple University, who "likens the teenage brain to a car with a powerful gas pedal and weak brakes. While the gas pedal responsible for things like emotional arousal and susceptibility to peer pressure is fully developed, the brakes that permit long-term thinking and resistance to peer pressure need work.”

Not everyone is on board.

Supreme Court bans life without parole

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The Supreme Court decision to ban life without parole for children in all cases except murder affects 37 states with laws on the books, including Georgia.  But it does not appear that any Georgia inmates are candidates for release at this time. The ruling reversed a life without parole sentence for  Terrance Graham, a Florida man who was 17 when he committed a home invasion robbery, just six months after another robbery. As the Miami Herald reports, the high court agreed he belongs in prison, but said, “it does not follow that he would be a risk to society for the rest of his life.''

An analysis in the Christian Science Monitor cites studies showing young people are less able to assess risk, control impulses, and process consequences.  Justice Kennedy wrote that they are also more capable of change.  Cutting off that possibility amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. Seven states already ban life without parole for juveniles.  Eleven more statesare considering similar laws.