Arizona can put juveniles in prison for life, state Supreme Court rules
Arizona judges are free to sentence juveniles to what amount to de facto life sentences despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings that appear to prohibit that, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
In a unanimous decision, the justices insisted they were not ignoring what the nation’s high court has repeatedly ruled.
Instead, they said, those legal precedents involved juveniles who were sentenced to life behind bars without possibility of parole for a single crime. The Arizona cases, the justices here wrote, all involved juveniles sentenced to consecutive sentences for multiple crimes.
And that, wrote Justice John Lopez, means judges here handling juvenile cases are not bound by the U.S. Supreme Court precedent even though their consecutive terms amounted to the same thing.
Read more: https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/10/09/arizona-can-put-juveniles-in-prison-for-life-state-supreme-court-rules/