In U.S., more kids get life terms

The United States has far more juveniles sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole than any other country, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco's Center for Law & Global Justice.

The U.S. currently has 2,387 inmates serving such sentences for crimes committed before they turned 18 years old. Israel runs a vastly distant second with seven. Israel, the only other country, according to the study, that imprisons juveniles for life, has not issued such a sentence since 2004.

In the United States, life terms have fallen disproportionately on children of color, with black juveniles 10 times more likely than white children to be given life without parole, the report found.

In California, which currently has 227 inmates serving such sentences, black juveniles are 20 times more likely to be given life without parole.

"For many children, [life without parole] is an effective death sentence, carried out by the state slowly over a long period of time," said Michelle Leighton, chief author of the study.

The report found that 51 percent of juveniles sentenced to life without parole were first-time offenders.

The federal government and 44 states permit life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.

"Among those states, 13 allow sentencing a child of any age to [life without parole] and one sets the bar at 8 years or older," according to the study. There are 18 states that could apply the sentence to a child as young as 10, and 20 states that allow it for children 12 or older. The minimum age is 14 in 13 other states.

Pennsylvania has sentenced 433 juveniles to life in prison without possibility of parole, more than any other state.

The report asserts that "harsh sentences dispensed in adult courts do not take into account the lessened culpability of juvenile offenders, their ineptness at navigating the criminal justice system, or their potential for rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Psychologically and neurologically, children cannot be expected to have achieved the same level of mental development as an adult, even when they become teenagers."

Intensified advocacy on the issue has come in the wake of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roper v. Simmons, in which the court held that the Constitution prohibits executing an individual for a murder committed by someone younger than 18. The majority opinion cited research saying that the mental capacity of juveniles was not the same as that of adults.

California proposal

In California, Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco-San Mateo, a child psychologist, has introduced a bill that would modify California sentencing laws.

SB 999, known as the California Juvenile Life Without Parole Reform Act, still would allow for juvenile life sentences but would amend the California Penal Code so that such inmates would be able to apply for parole after serving 25 years of the term.

"Children have an extraordinary capacity for rehabilitation," Yee said at a hearing in mid-April. "The neuroscience is clear; brain maturation continues well through adolescence, and thus impulse control, planning and critical thinking skills are still not fully developed."

The measure is staunchly opposed by law-enforcement groups such as the California District Attorneys Association, the California Peace Officers' Association and Crime Victims United.

In a statement to the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety, Crime Victims United said that judges already "have the discretion to provide a sentence of 25 years to life and reserve life without parole for highly serious offenders. In order for a juvenile to obtain a sentence of life without parole, he or she must have committed a heinous, violent offense."

Challenge in court

The issue is being litigated in court. Last March, two veteran criminal-defense lawyers filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the California Supreme Court challenging the sentencing of Antonio Nunez, who is serving life without parole after being convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder.

Nunez was 14 at the time the crime was committed and was riding in the car of a 27-year-old man he had met at a party. The older man offered him a ride home and on the way there kidnapped another man and then negotiated with the man's brother for ransom.

"Nunez's case is the only known case nationwide in which a 14-year-old was sentenced to die in prison for his involvement in a single incident in which no one was injured," according to the petition filed by attorneys Bryan Stevenson of Montgomery, Ala., and Jack Earley of Irvine, Calif.

The lawyers contend that the sentence violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The California Attorney General's Office just filed papers opposing Nunez's release, and the California Supreme Court may hear the case in 2008.