I blogged before about handing down a sentence of life-without-parole for juvenile offenders, including those as young as 13. In essence, such a sentence robs a child of the rest of their life for a mistake they made before society expects them to be able to think clearly.

Sentencing Law and Policy points out that on Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security will hold a hearing on HR 2289, the “Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009.” (If that subcommittee sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same subcommittee for which Al Crotzer testified about his experience of wrongful incarceration last week.) One of the provisions of the bill would eliminate life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders.

Says SentLaw,

I do not think this bill is likely to get too much legislative traction, but it should be interested to see what gets said about juve LWOP while briefing is underway in the two juve LWOP cases, Graham and Sullivan, recently taken up by the Supreme Court…

You can also see my post on Graham and Sullivan, both cases out of Florida, here.

Related posts:

1. Life without parole for juveniles Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story about Joe Sullivan, who is serving a life sentence for a rape...
2. No Life Sentences Without Parole for Some Juveniles ON Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an anticipated ruling in a Florida case that has once...
3. Supreme Court set to decide on life without parole for juvies On May 4, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases out of FLorida. Both cases deal with the Constitutionality...
4. Criminal justice and Obama White House We blogged earlier, on the day of the inauguration, about Obama’s plans to reform the criminal justice system. Today, SentLaw noticed...
5. 26 Years Taken Away, But A Whole Life Ahead Wrongful conviction vacated; charges dropped; Anthony Caravella’s nightmare officially over; the first day of the rest of his life: A...
6. Economy forces tough-on-crime legislatures to temper their rhetoric That is the subject of an excellent post on Change.org’s Criminal Justice blog titled, “A Shift Away From ‘Tough on...