2. Group 3

3. History Mentally disabled living in a home where physical and sexual abuse were regularly subjected Arrested 1989 at the age of thirteen Charged of sexual battery in violation of Florida law and tried in adult court After a one-day trial, Sullivan was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility for parole

4. Sullivan was 13 years old in 1989 Him and two other youths broke into an elderly women’s home to burglarize it Women was not home, jewelry and some coins were stolen Later on that day, Sullivan and one of the others returned Upon their return, one of them sexually assaulted her and then she was beaten

5. Sullivan was identified at trial by the victim’s somewhat hazy recollection of the voice of her attacker (she never saw anyone because her head was covered) One of the other youths identified Sullivan as the attacker At sentencing, prosecutors listed 17 prior crimes in the previous 2 years and had spent time in a juvenile facility Based on this information Joe was treated legally as an adult under Florida law

6. Sullivan’s lawyer at the trial filed a post-trial brief that stated there were no legal issues to be raised This same lawyer was later disbarred In 1992, without the help of a lawyer, Sullivan filed a post conviction challenge in state court That challenge was defeated and he didn’t appeal Later on a lawyer agreed to help Joe prove his innocence This would be done through a DNA test

7. This failed because all DNA evidence had been destroyed After the Supreme Court’s Roper decision a new challenge was filed

8. Florida leads the nation by a wide margin in sending juvenile criminals to prison for life for crimes like burglary, battery, car-jacking and rape. Nationally, 109 juveniles are serving life sentences without parole for non-homicide crimes, with Florida claiming 77 of those prisoners, according to a study by Florida State University researchers. Florida is the only state to impose life without parole for juveniles convicted of burglary, battery or car-jacking.

9. 8 th Amendment Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

10. In 2005, the Supreme Court held that the imposition of the death penalty on those who were minors at the time of the offense violates the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.

11. Before the 2005 Supreme Court ruling, the United States was the only country in the world with people condemned to die in prison for offenses committed when they were children.

12. In 2005, the Supreme Court held that the imposition of the death penalty on those who were minors at the time of the offense violates the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment.

13. 1. The Court found that the standards of decency of society had substantially evolved and that there was now a national consensus in the United States against the death penalty for juveniles. 2. The Court relied on scientific evidence indicating that minors lack the same intellectual and emotional maturity as adults and thus should not be subject to the same punishment as adults. 3. The Court specifically relied upon the laws and practices of foreign courts and international authorities in support of its decision. This is extremely significant because the Court has rarely ever made such a pronouncement.

14. In that 2005 case decided by a 5-4 vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion talked about "the lesser culpability of the juvenile offender.“ "From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed," Kennedy said. Yet Kennedy also acknowledged the possibility that for the worst crimes and the worst offenders, "the punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is itself a severe sanction, in particular for a young person."

15. This case is arguing that the 8 th Amendment is also being violated when minors are sentenced to life sentences because it is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

16. This falls under category 3, State v Federal. The Supreme Court is deciding whether sentencing juveniles to life sentences is a violation of there 8 th Amendment, cruel and unusual punishment, while Florida is fighting for the states rights to sentence these minors as they wish to protect there citizens.

17. The state of Florida, backed by 19 other states, argues it should retain flexibility in sentencing so that "particularly heinous acts that stop short of causing death" can be punished vigorously. Life without parole "is appropriately rare and reserved only for the worst of the worst offenders," crime victims' groups said in court papers. Most victims of juvenile violence also are young, the victims groups said, citing Justice Department statistics. "Softening sentences for juvenile offenders puts actual children in harm's way -- innocent ones, not those who have committed violent crimes," the victims' groups said.

18. "They are unfinished products, works-in-progress," said Bryan Stevenson, who will argue Sullivan's case at the high court. Opponents of such sentences said, however, that most states have in practice rejected life terms for juveniles when no one was killed. The 109 juveniles serving terms of life without parole are in Florida and seven other states -- California, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina -- according to a Florida State University study. More than 2,000 other juveniles are serving life without parole for killing someone. Only 9 people in the country are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were 13. The number rises to 73 when 14-year-olds are added in. No other country allows life sentences for young offenders, opponents say. Beyond the infrequency of such punishment, lawyers for Graham and Sullivan argue that it is a bad idea to render a final judgment about people so young.

19. In the U.S. there’s currently over 2380 serving life without parole for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18 This practice violates international human rights law which prohibits the life without parole for those who are not yet 18 years old United States is out of step with the rest of the world Only 7 individuals are currently serving a life sentence for a childhood crime outside of the U.S., all 7 cases are in Israel

20. National Problem

21.  Mental Illness and Mental Retardation In 1986, the Supreme Court banned the execution of insane persons and required an adversarial process for determining mental competency in Ford v. Wainwright(477 U.S. 399). In Penry v. Lynaugh (492 U.S. 584 (1989)), the Court held that executing persons with mental retardation was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment. However, in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia, (536 U.S. 304), the Court held that a national consensus had evolved against the execution of the mentally retarded and concluded that such a punishment violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on crual and unusual punishment.  Juveniles In the late 1980s, the Supreme Court decided three cases regarding the constitutionality of executing juvenile offenders. In 1988, in Thompson v. Oklahoma (487 U.S. 815), four Justices held that the execution of offenders aged fifteen and younger at the time of their crimes was unconstitutional. The fifth vote was Justice O'Connor's concurrence, which restricted Thompson only to states without a specific minimum age limit in their death penalty statute. The combined effect of the opinions by the four Justices and Justice O'Connor in Thompson is that no state without a minimum age in its death penalty statute can execute someone who was under sixteen at the time of the crime.The following year, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed at age sixteen or seventeen. (Stanford v. Kentucky, and Wilkins v. Missouri (collectively, 492 U.S. 361)). At present, 19 states with the death penalty bar the execution of anyone under 18 at the time of his or her crime.  In 1992, the United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6(5) of this international human rights doctrine requires that the death penalty not be used on those who committed their crimes when they were below the age of 18. However, in doing so but the U.S. reserved the right to execute juvenile offenders. The United States is the only country with an outstanding reservation to this Article. International reaction has been highly critical of this reservation, and ten countries have filed formal objections to the U.S. reservation.

22. Currently at the Supreme Court awaiting decision!!!

23. Is life a life in prison without parole considered cruel and unusual punishment for a juvenile? Chief Justice Roberts made a strong and repeated effort to recruit a majority of the Supreme Court in favor of giving juveniles' more chance to use their age to challenge life without parole terms. While there was much sympathy evident among some-not all- of the Justices for treating juveniles differently, there does not appear to be a clear cut majority for taking away the life-without-parole option, even in cases where the victim of a youth’s crime did not die. The alternative would be a declaration that the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment required judges to take the offender’s youth into account in setting sentence.

24. Does imposition of a life without parole sentence violate the pr0hibition on cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment? Does this case belong in front of the Supreme Court? In the past the justices have recognized that a state is permitted to make “a societal decision that when a person who has previously committed felony commits yet another should be subjected to the admittedly serious penalty of incarceration for life.

25. I believe that any person committing a crime deserves to be punished for their actions. If the court decides that these juveniles should be treated as adults, there should not be any rules to protect them from being treated accordingly. Any punishment that can be given to an adult should also be available to the juvenile, up to and including a death sentence.