Long sentence for juvenile challenged
on Dec 19, 2007 at 11:24 am
Seeking an extension of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the rights of juveniles in Roper v. Simmons (2005), lawyers for a South Carolinian who committed a double murder at age 12 are challenging the youth’s prison sentence of 30 years without a chance for parole. The petition in Pittman v. South Carolina was filed on Monday. (A docket number has not yet been assigned.)
Prepared by the Supreme Court Clinic at the University of Texas Law School, the petition tests whether it is cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to punish a youth so severely, given the circumstances of immaturity and the rarity of such a sentence. The petition and the South Carolina Supreme Court ruling can be downloaded from links provided on this site.
In the Roper decision, the Court ruled that it is cruel and unusual punishment to impose a death sentence on an individual who committed a murder while still a juvenile. The Pittman petition seeks to extend the principles of that decision to prison sentences for youths.
(Thanks to Howard Bashman of How Appealing blog for a link to the site for these documents, and for his diligent coverage of the case.)
