The Campaign to End Juvenile Life Without Parole

Thank you for joining the Robina Institute on Wednesday, February 21, 2018, for a discussion about the Campaign to End Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP). View a recording of the event below.

Professor Perry Moriearty led a conversation with Xavier McElrath-Bey, Senior Advisor and National Advocate for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth and James Dold, Advocacy Director & Chief Strategy Officer for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. We heard about Xavier's experience as an individual sentenced and incarcerated as a juvenile, discussed how states are responding to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Miller and Montgomery, and what the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth is doing to advocate for the ban of JLWOP.

As we discussed at our 2016 In Conversation event, "Kids Are Different: Juvenile Life Without Parole and Other Juvenile Justice Issues," in Montgomery v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Miller v. Alabama can be applied retroactively. Individuals who were previously sentenced as juveniles to life without the possibility of parole must be considered for parole or given a new sentence, regardless of how long ago the crime occurred. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that states do not have to go so far as to re-sentence those sentenced to life without parole, but that the states can offer parole hearings with no guarantee of release. Limiting the use of life without parole does not guarantee individuals would be released, but it does guarantee an opportunity for the chance of being released.

According to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, "26 states still have life-without-parole sentences for kids on the books and are using these extreme sentences in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court directives in Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana. Of the remaining 25 states and the District of Columbia, 20 and DC have banned the sentence, while four have no one serving."