13 Search results for "mandatory life sentences"

As reported in the AJC, seventeen-year-old Jaydon Lee Reid from Cobb County, Georgia was just given two life sentences and an additional fifteen years for the shooting of Terrence Banks and Sterling Hargrave when he was fourteen years old. While much work around juvenile justice and reducing prison sentences focuses on commuting the sentences or […]

Two Massachusetts men who were sentenced to life in prison under a mandatory life sentencing law when they were juveniles pleaded for freedom Thursday. Joseph Donovan, 38, and Frederick Christian, 37 are hoping that their voices will be heard in light of recent changes to the state’s law regarding juvenile offenders. 

The following is a guest post written by Logan Strain a writer for Instant Checkmate, an online background check service.  When he isn’t reading, he’s hanging out with his daughter. By: Logan Strain In Florida, having enough pills to fit into the palm of your hand will land you in prison for three years. At least. Statute […]

Clarence Aaron is one of 8 prisoners whose sentences were pardoned by President Obama on Thursday. Aaron is one of many first-time nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to life without parole. His story was widely used as a prime example of injustice within the prison system. 

The war on drugs is very real. Many of the country’s prison population is serving hard time behind bars due to their involvement in the drug game. Thousands on inmates are serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentences for offenses that are as small as possession of a crack pipe or a smudge of heroin in a bottle cap.

Michigan Judge John Corbett O’Meara has ruled that juveniles convicted of first-degree murder must be considered for parole. O’Meara’s ruling demands that the state no longer enforce their mandatory-no-parole law in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court decision.

Today a historic Supreme Court ruling banned mandatory life sentences for children convicted of homicide. The ruling affirms that young offenders should be given “a meaningful opportunity to show they have rehabilitated themselves and are appropriate candidates for release.”

This past Tuesday, the Senate passed the First Step Act with much bipartisan support. The bill provides the most significant reforms for federal prisoners in the criminal justice system in decades, although critics point out that given the “tough on crime” anti-Black rhetoric both parties have been trafficking in, that isn’t much.

On Wednesday, President Trump expressed support for a bipartisan bill that would minimize prison sentences, ease mandatory minimums, and offer inmates services after their incarceration.

  The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether hundreds of juvenile offenders sentenced to life in prison without parole deserve a chance to be resentenced. 

On January 25, 2016, the United States Supreme Court has decided that states have to place a ban on mandatory death-in-prison sentences for juveniles retroactively.

The following post originally appeared on the Huffington Post. It was written by Glenn Martin and appears under the title of, “The War on Drugs Didn’t Fail Yesterday.” Glenn E. Martin is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who who spent six years in New York State prisons. He’s also the Founder and Chief Risk […]