Casey Matsumoto
88 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 239
Juvenile life without parole (“JLWOP”) is the most severe criminal penalty for juveniles tolerated by the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and is imposed only on those juvenile defendants convicted of homicide crimes. In Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court struck down mandatory JLWOP sentences as unconstitutional. However, a juvenile defendant can still receive a discretionary JLWOP sentence if (1) she is convicted of a homicide offense, and (2) her crime reflects “permanent incorrigibility” as opposed to “transient immaturity.” The sentencer determines whether a defendant is permanently incorrigible after consideration of certain mitigating factors. The Court in Montgomery v. Louisiana clarified that Miller did not impose a formal factfinding requirement on trial courts and that the sentencing court retained discretion to determine what procedures it used to make this determination. With no formal process required, some lower courts have foregone any meaningful factfinding before meting out JLWOP sentences.
Juvenile sentencing is often analyzed within the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” framework. However, JLWOP also implicates the Sixth Amendment’s jury requirement because it functions as an enhanced sentence. An enhanced sentence requires additional factual findings that elevate the penalty beyond the statutory maximum authorized by the jury verdict alone. Under the Sixth Amendment, all facts that elevate a penalty beyond the statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, “whether a defendant is permanently incorrigible” is a factual question that should be submitted to the jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Because JLWOP functions as an enhanced sentence, the Sixth Amendment imposes a formal factfinding requirement on the sentencer even if Miller does not impose this requirement. To serve the Court’s intention in Miller and the Sixth Amendment’s mandates for enhanced sentences, trial courts should place a presumption against the imposition of JLWOP that requires the state to prove to a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant’s crime reflects permanent incorrigibility.
