Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Effective examination of juve LWOP problems in Michigan

By Douglas A. Berman

This local article, headlined "As bill to ban life imprisonment for children languishes, inequities of defense persist," provides an effective review of Michigan's story of sentencing juvenile offenders to extreme prison terms.  Here are excerpts (which include helpful links): As legislation to end juvenile-life-without-parole sentences in Michigan remains stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, some court watchers are warning that the controversial sentence may not be in tune with recent public opinion and is not applied fairly by the justice system. Currently, nearly 350 people in the state are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were age 17 or younger. Seventy percent of them are African American, according to the state?s Department of Corrections...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 13, 2009 (boomark / email).