Miller v. Alabama
- Decided
- June 25, 2012
- Docket
- 10-9646
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 6,816 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that the imposition of mandatory life-without-parole sentences on individuals who committed murders while they were under the age of 18 violates the Eighth Amendment — State v. Long (2014)
- holding that a mandatory sentence of life without parole for juvenile offenders violates the Eighth Amendment — United States v. Rivera-Ruperto (2017)
- holding that "the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders" — Wyatt L. Bear Cloud v. The State of Wyoming (2013)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
[*465] Justice Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court.
The two 14-year-old offenders in these cases were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In neither case did the sentencing authority have any discretion to impose a different punishment. State law mandated that each juvenile die in prison even if a judge or jury would have thought that his youth and its attendant characteristics, along with the nature of his crime, made a lesser sentence (for example, life with the possibility of parole) more appropriate. Such a scheme prevents those meting out punishment from considering a juvenile’s “lessened culpability” and greater “capacity for change,” Graham v. Florida, 560 U. S. 48, 68, 74 (2010), and runs afoul of our cases’ requirement of individualized sentencing for defendants facing the most serious penalties. We therefore hold that mandatory life without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishments.”
I
Cite this
Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012)Read the full opinion
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