Fair Punishment Project
For Immediate Release—March 31, 2016
New Report Calls Philadelphia an 'Extreme Outlier' on Juvenile Life Without Parole, Urges DA Seth Williams to Reconsider Juvenile Sentences in Light of Recent Supreme Court Decision
READ THE REPORT: http://bit.ly/21TUADR
Cambridge, Mass.—As Pennsylvania prepares for hundreds of resentencing hearings, a new report released today by the Fair Punishment Project and Phillips Black highlights Philadelphia’s frequent use of life without parole sentences for juveniles, calling the county an “extreme outlier” in its use of the punishment.
The report urges District Attorney Seth Williams to adopt a new approach to dealing with juveniles in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Montgomery v. Louisiana, which determined that the court’s prior decision barring mandatory life without parole sentences for youth must be applied retroactively.
The report, Juvenile Life Without Parole in Philadelphia: A Time for Hope?, notes that Philadelphia County is responsible for the highest number of juvenile life without parole sentences in the country. By way of comparison, Philadelphia County is home to just .5% of all Americans, but at least 9% of all juveniles sentenced to life without parole—or nearly one in 10.
“The latest scientific research show us that juveniles have a tremendous capacity to change their behaviors as they age,” stated Johanna Wald, a spokesperson for the Fair Punishment Project. “It is an injustice, and waste of taxpayer resources, to keep individuals locked up until their death for crimes they committed when they were teenagers. They should have an opportunity to prove they are worthy of a second chance.”
Wald notes that the Supreme Court has set a high bar to justify a life without parole sentence for juveniles. “The court has said that juvenile life without parole sentences should be reserved for exceptional cases that reflect ‘irreparable corruption.’ Given that adolescent brains are not fully developed and the capacity children have to change, the court rightfully assumes that it will be rare for an individual to meet this standard.”
The report highlights the case of John “Freddie” Nole who was convicted of murder in 1969 when he was just 17 years old and has now been incarcerated for 47 years. Nole has established a prison program designed to help prisoners and their families build stronger relationships; serves as a worship leader of the Yokefellow program; and has received numerous community service awards, including the Spirit of Philadelphia. The report notes that many juveniles transform into productive adults, and that life without parole sentences deny them the opportunity to demonstrate to society that they have changed.
“Philadelphia has sentenced more juveniles to life without parole than anywhere else in the United States,” said John Mills of Phillips Black. “It is an outlier jurisdiction that, thanks to the court’s ruling, now has the opportunity to right the harsh punishments of the past by providing a thoughtful and measured approach to resentencing.”
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Contact:
Jaline Quinto
About the Fair Punishment Project:
The Fair Punishment Project uses legal research and educational initiatives to ensure that the U.S. justice system is fair and accountable. As a joint initiative of Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice and its Criminal Justice Institute, we work to highlight the gross injustices resulting from prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective defense lawyers, and racial bias, and to illuminate the laws that result in excessive punishment. For more information visit: www.fairpunishment.org.
About Phillips Black:
Phillips Black is at the forefront of compiling and analyzing the transformation of juvenile life without parole sentencing (JLWOP) resulting from the seminal Eighth Amendment decisions of Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), and Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012). Phillips Black is a leading producer of JLWOP legal scholarship examining the rapid changes across the country, identifying the jurisdictions that have already abandoned or are decidedly moving away from this sentence, and explicating the law and actual practices in counties and states that continue to countenance sentencing individuals to die in prison for crimes they committed before reaching age 18. For more information visit: http://www.phillipsblack.org/juvenile-justice/
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