Pa. court moving fast on juveniles
It must act since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mandatory life terms for youths unconstitutional.
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania's highest court is moving quickly to determine how the state should respond to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.
The state Supreme Court on Monday scheduled oral arguments for Sept. 12 in a pair of cases that will determine what to do about the hundreds of people already serving such sentences, as well as how to handle the issue going forward.
The defendants are Ian Cunningham, serving life for a second-degree murder conviction out of Philadelphia, and Qu'Eed Batts, convicted of first-degree murder in Northampton County.
Cunningham's case concerns lifers who have exhausted direct appeals and want to bring up the high court's ruling as a new matter. In the Batts case, the justices directed lawyers to address what the appropriate remedy is, as a general matter, for those sentenced to life without parole.
The 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision issued June 25 left it possible for juveniles to get life, but said it cannot be automatic.
Under Pennsylvania law, a first-degree murder conviction can only result in the death penalty for adults or life without parole. A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.
"It's a heartrending situation when you talk to some of these guys," said Batts' lawyer, Philip Lauer. "Some of them have been in there since their really early teens, like barely into their teens."
The state Department of Corrections lists 373 lifers who were under 18 at the time they were sentenced. Others say the number of juvenile lifers is closer to 500, because the department's number excludes people who turned 18 before they were sentenced. A March report by the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group in Washington, said Pennsylvania had the most juvenile lifers of any state, and by some estimates the national total is about 2,500.
Andy Hoover, with the American Civil Liberties Union, said lawmakers should act to ban juvenile life sentences.
"It's going to be difficult for the legislature to set up a scheme that maintains life without parole for kids but makes it rare," Hoover said.
The state prosecutors' association offered testimony at a state Senate hearing on the topic last month in Harrisburg, arguing that the Supreme Court ruling should not be retroactively applied and suggesting a sentencing scheme in which juveniles convicted of first- or second-degree murder would be ineligible for release before 60.