Supreme Court Rules Justices Limit Life Sentences for Juveniles
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday (May 17, 2010) ruled that juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Five justices, in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, agreed that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids such sentences as a categorical matter. “A state need not guarantee the offender eventual release,” Justice Kennedy wrote, “but if it imposes the sentence of life, it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity to obtain release before the end of that term.” The ruling marked the first time that the court excluded an entire class of offenders from a given form of punishment outside the context of the death penalty. “ ‘Death is different’ no longer,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent. The overall vote was 6-to-3, though that is a little misleading. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. voted with the majority in saying that the inmate who brought the appeal had received a sentence so harsh that it violated the Constitution. But the chief justice endorsed only a case-by-case approach, saying that an offender’s age could be considered in deciding whether a life sentence was so disproportionate to the crime as to violate the Eighth Amendment. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/us/politics/18court.html?pagewanted=print
Attorney General Eric Holder at the Fatherhood Town Hall
December 15, 2009
http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-091215.html
Thank you, Mike. I’d also like to thank you, Dr. Franklin, and Morehouse College for hosting this important conversation. Before I became Attorney General I was a proud member of the board of the Morehouse Medical School. And I also want to express my appreciation to my fellow panelists here this evening.
As Attorney General, I serve as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer. In that role, I have the responsibility of protecting our national security and promoting public safety. And yet, there are days when these responsibilities, as grave as they are, seem manageable in comparison with the awesome responsibilities that I face as a father of three children. To me, being a responsible and engaged father is every bit as demanding, and every bit as important, as being the Attorney General of the United States.
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009
Presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, and principals. A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. It also provides the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools and school environments and responses to violence and crime at school. Data are drawn from several federally funded collections including the National Crime Victimization Survey, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, School Survey on Crime and Safety, and the Schools and Staffing Survey. Information was gathered from an array of sources including: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/iscs09.htm