The Supreme Court ruled today that sentencing juveniles to life without parole for non-homicide offenses violates the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In a narrow 5 to 4 decision the court found that states must provide juveniles sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide crimes with meaningful opportunities to show that they deserve release.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “By denying the defendant the right to reenter the community, the state makes an irrevocable judgment about that person’s value and place in society. This judgment is not appropriate in light of a juvenile nonhomicide offender’s capacity for change and limited moral culpability.”

Littered with references to friend of the court briefs detailing childrens’ limited culpability and capacity for change, the decision is in sharp contrast to the dissent authored by Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote that, “The court is quite willing to accept that a 17-year-old who pulls the trigger on a firearm can demonstrate sufficient depravity and irredeemability to be denied reentry into society, but insists that a 17-year-old who rapes…does not. The question of what acts are ‘deserving’ of what punishments is bound so tightly with questions of morality and social conditions as to make it…a question for legislative resolution.”

StopDirectFile.org agrees both with Justice Thomas’ reasoning and the Court’s actions. While the court has taken an important step in the right direction, there are currently 50 juvenile offenders serving life sentences in Colorado. Treated as adults in a system that favors prosecutorial power (direct file) over judicial discretion (actually balancing victims’ rights, community safety and the defendant’s rights), many of those children have been found guilty of crimes such as complicity in murder, vehicular homicide or unintentional second degree murder. A life sentence is not justified for an unintentional or reckless circumstantial act.

It is now up to state legislatures–Colorado’s included–to rectify the moral contradictions in this ruling and recognize that children who commit unintentional or circumstantial “homicide”  are not “morally or penalogically” irredeemable. Juvenile Life Without Parole, whether it is achieved through consecutive terms (i.e. two 40 year terms in the Caudle case) or some other means, is cruel and unusual punishment for a child. Period.

According to Mary Ellen Johnson of Pendulum Juvenile Justice, “Colorado would be well-served to re-visit those 50 cases of juveniles serving life without parole. It is simply a matter of time before juvenile life without parole will be declared unconstitutional for all.”

StopDirectFile.org supports comprehensive sentence reform that provides appropriate community protections by removing juvenile offenders from society (until they are no longer a threat); provides victims with a sense of security and justice (not revenge); and gives juvenile offenders an opportunity for rehabilitation (not cold storage).