WASHINGTON (KMPH) -
States with laws that make it mandatory for teen killers to get life sentences without parole may not longer hand down those sentences. That was the ruling handed down on Monday from the US Supreme Court.
The court ruled that such sentences violation the US Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.
However, the state did not eliminate such sentences, only ruling that states that made them mandatory may not do so. The justices that voted to overturn those state laws stopped short of saying states may not hand down mandatory life sentences to teenaged killers, only that juries must have a say in what sentence gets handed down. The justices, normally described as "liberals", also wrote that a jury must be allowed to consider a killer's age and home environment before deciding on a sentence.
In a written opinion for the conservative justices, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that after the decision "even a 1y year-old who sets off a bomb ... or guns down a dozen students and teachers ... must be given a chance to persuade a judge to permit his release into society."
