Posts
TALLAHASSEE – The state Supreme Court should determine whether a 70-year sentence for a 14-year-old essentially amounts to life in prison, and therefore should be barred, a lower court said Tuesday.
Shimeek Gridine
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ruled unanimously on Tuesday that it doesn’t in the case of Shimeek Gridine, who was convicted after guilty pleas to attempted murder and armed robbery in a 2009 case.
Gridine, who had to be sentenced to at least 25 years because he used a gun in the crime, was sentenced to 70 years in prison. His lawyers argued that such a long sentence would mean he very well might die in prison, making the sentence effectively a life term. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently that juveniles can’t be sentenced to life in prison for crimes other than murder.
Request rejected
The 1st DCA first rejected Gridine’s appeal in 2011, saying that the U.S. Supreme Court specifically ruled that such “functional life sentences” only applied to juveniles sentenced to life without parole which wasn’t the case in Gridine’s situation.
Gridine’s lawyers asked for a rehearing on the issue, and on Tuesday a different three-judge panel than the one that ruled against him two years ago rejected that request.
But in doing so, the appeals court asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in on whether a 70-year sentence is functionally a life sentence for a 14-year-old and thereby barred by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Measure fails
Courts have ruled in different ways on the question since the U.S. Supreme Court ban on life sentences for juveniles. The 1st DCA recently said an 80-year sentence handed down to an Escambia County 17-year-old was unconstitutional.
During the previous two legislative sessions, lawmakers have considered legislation aimed at dealing with the question, but have failed to pass a bill.
This past session the House passed a bill that would have required a review of the sentence after 25 years for any juvenile sentenced to life or any other long sentence. That measure, however, failed to pass the Senate.
http://flcourier.com/2012/05/31/judges-supreme-court-should-weigh-in-on-teens-70-year-sentence/
Showing posts with label Teens Serving Life In Prison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teens Serving Life In Prison. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Judge Me If You Must
If You must Judge Me...
Judge me not for mistakes of my youth..
And choices made of immaturity.
If Judge Me You must..
Judge me not for the life I led
before I had a chance to grow,
in years, mind and spirit..
If Judge Me You must..
Judge me from this day forward,
and the person I have grown into
and chose to be..
If Judge Me You Must..
Judge me for the heart, spirit, and soul.
Allow yourself to look within
to the person I am now..
If Judge Me You must..
.
Judge me not for my past
and things beyound my control...
Judge me for me ,not the things
I didn't know how to change..
If Judge Me You Must...
Judge me for the person I am,
and the person I shall be.
Judge me for the inside of me...
Give me a second chance to live and love..
If Judge Me You Must....
Author Unknown~
Monday, November 7, 2011
Michigan has more juvenile life sentences than almost any other state
Why Michigan has more juvenile life sentences than almost any other state
By John Barnes November 06, 2011,
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/why_michigan_has_more_juvenile.html
A state industry
Michigan spends more than $10 million a year to house more juvenile lifers than all but one other state, Pennsylvania.
In all, 358 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes committed from ages 14 to 17. One in five has been in prison 25 years or longer.
The oldest is 67, now that two older lifers have died.
What the numbers show
Juvenile lifers look a lot alike. They are almost exclusively male. Two out of three are black. Most were 17 at the time, but 45 percent were 16 and younger. Nearly half did their crimes in the 1990s
By John Barnes November 06, 2011,
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/why_michigan_has_more_juvenile.html
A state industry
Michigan spends more than $10 million a year to house more juvenile lifers than all but one other state, Pennsylvania.
In all, 358 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes committed from ages 14 to 17. One in five has been in prison 25 years or longer.
The oldest is 67, now that two older lifers have died.
What the numbers show
Juvenile lifers look a lot alike. They are almost exclusively male. Two out of three are black. Most were 17 at the time, but 45 percent were 16 and younger. Nearly half did their crimes in the 1990s
Monday, September 12, 2011
Teen’s life sentence unconstitutional, lawyer argues
Teen’s life sentence unconstitutional, lawyer argues
Posted on 08 September 2011
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A lawyer for an Arkansas teenager serving a life sentence for
capital murder argued today before the Arkansas Supreme Court that the sentence
was unconstitutional because his client was only 16 at the time of the crime and
did not fire the fatal shot.
A lawyer for the state told the justices the sentence is consistent with federal
and state case law.
The high court heard oral arguments but did not immediately issue a ruling in an
appeal by Lemuel Session Whiteside, 19, who was convicted of capital murder and
aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole
in the January 2009 shooting death of James London Sr., 30, in Little Rock.
Authorities never accused Whiteside of shooting London. Cambrin Sain Barnes
admitted to being the gunman and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and
aggravated robbery in exchange for a 40-year sentence. But prosecutors said
Whiteside — who declined to plead guilty — gave the murder weapon to Barnes and
told him where to find London.
Tom Sullivan, attorney for Whiteside, told the justices today that in the case
Graham v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court said a sentence of life without parole
is too severe for a juvenile for any offense other than homicide. Such a
sentence violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual
punishment, the court said in that decision.
Sullivan said that as he interprets the decision, Whiteside should not have been
sentenced to life without parole because he did not kill London.
“In this case the defendant is not the shooter, and there has been no proof of
an intent to kill,” he said.
Justice Robert Brown asked Sullivan if he was asking the justices to expand the
Graham v. Florida decision. Sullivan said he was only asking them to interpret
how the decision should apply to a defendant who is convicted of murder but did
not kill anyone.
The decision “leaves open this middle ground,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also argued that because the death penalty was not an option under
Graham v. Florida, the only option for Whiteside was life without parole, so the
jury was denied a say in the sentence.
Assistant Attorney General Vada Berger told the justices that in the case
Kuntrell Jackson v. Arkansas, the state Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile
could be tried on a charge of capital murder in criminal court rather than
juvenile court, which meant that the juvenile had to be sentenced to life
without parole.
In that case the juvenile maintained that he was a lookout and not the person
who fired the fatal shot during the robbery of a Blytheville video store.
Brown asked Berger if the jury should have had a say in Whiteside’s sentencing.
She said there is no right to be sentenced by a jury.
“The Legislature is the one who gets to decide if there is jury sentencing, and
the Legislature has said there’s no jury sentencing here,” she said.
Berger also said the state established that Whiteside was heavily involved in
the killing.
“This is not a case where there is low culpability,” she said.
In recognition of its 175th birthday, the court met in its former courtroom at
the state Capitol instead of its courtroom at the Justice Building. The change
of venue did not go off without a hitch.
Minutes into the hearing, the court reporter complained that she could not hear
what was being said. The room is not wired for audio or video recording, so the
justices used a pocket recorder to capture the rest of the proceedings.
http://arkansasnews.com/2011/09/08/teen’s-life-sentence-unconstitutional-lawyer-\
argues/
Posted on 08 September 2011
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A lawyer for an Arkansas teenager serving a life sentence for
capital murder argued today before the Arkansas Supreme Court that the sentence
was unconstitutional because his client was only 16 at the time of the crime and
did not fire the fatal shot.
A lawyer for the state told the justices the sentence is consistent with federal
and state case law.
The high court heard oral arguments but did not immediately issue a ruling in an
appeal by Lemuel Session Whiteside, 19, who was convicted of capital murder and
aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole
in the January 2009 shooting death of James London Sr., 30, in Little Rock.
Authorities never accused Whiteside of shooting London. Cambrin Sain Barnes
admitted to being the gunman and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and
aggravated robbery in exchange for a 40-year sentence. But prosecutors said
Whiteside — who declined to plead guilty — gave the murder weapon to Barnes and
told him where to find London.
Tom Sullivan, attorney for Whiteside, told the justices today that in the case
Graham v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court said a sentence of life without parole
is too severe for a juvenile for any offense other than homicide. Such a
sentence violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual
punishment, the court said in that decision.
Sullivan said that as he interprets the decision, Whiteside should not have been
sentenced to life without parole because he did not kill London.
“In this case the defendant is not the shooter, and there has been no proof of
an intent to kill,” he said.
Justice Robert Brown asked Sullivan if he was asking the justices to expand the
Graham v. Florida decision. Sullivan said he was only asking them to interpret
how the decision should apply to a defendant who is convicted of murder but did
not kill anyone.
The decision “leaves open this middle ground,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan also argued that because the death penalty was not an option under
Graham v. Florida, the only option for Whiteside was life without parole, so the
jury was denied a say in the sentence.
Assistant Attorney General Vada Berger told the justices that in the case
Kuntrell Jackson v. Arkansas, the state Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile
could be tried on a charge of capital murder in criminal court rather than
juvenile court, which meant that the juvenile had to be sentenced to life
without parole.
In that case the juvenile maintained that he was a lookout and not the person
who fired the fatal shot during the robbery of a Blytheville video store.
Brown asked Berger if the jury should have had a say in Whiteside’s sentencing.
She said there is no right to be sentenced by a jury.
“The Legislature is the one who gets to decide if there is jury sentencing, and
the Legislature has said there’s no jury sentencing here,” she said.
Berger also said the state established that Whiteside was heavily involved in
the killing.
“This is not a case where there is low culpability,” she said.
In recognition of its 175th birthday, the court met in its former courtroom at
the state Capitol instead of its courtroom at the Justice Building. The change
of venue did not go off without a hitch.
Minutes into the hearing, the court reporter complained that she could not hear
what was being said. The room is not wired for audio or video recording, so the
justices used a pocket recorder to capture the rest of the proceedings.
http://arkansasnews.com/2011/09/08/teen’s-life-sentence-unconstitutional-lawyer-\
argues/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)