Bill Would Effectively End Life Without Parole For Juvenile Offenders

On Thursday, the Sentencing Project released a report that examined juveniles serving life without parole. According to California State Senator Leland Yee, over 300 youth offenders have been condemned to spend their entire lives and to die in California’s prisons for crimes committed when they were teenagers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Wednesday

The United States is the only country in the world where people who were under age 18 at the time of their crime serve sentences of life without parole. Nationally, more than 2,500 youth offenders are serving these sentences.

The report comes as the California State Assembly is set to reconsider a bill (SB 9) authored by Senator Leland Yee that would give youth a second chance to earn parole after serving at least 25 years in prison. The bill fell one vote short of passage last year.

The 28-page report, “When I Die, They’ll Send Me Home: An Update,” draws on six years of research, interviews, and correspondence with correctional officials and youth offenders serving life without parole. Despite mounting evidence of young people’s ability to change, California persists in sentencing youth to life without parole, Human Rights Watch found.

“No one can predict who a teen will be at age 40,” said Elizabeth Calvin, senior children’s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “When California sentences a 16-year-old to die in prison, the state ignores what science, parents and teachers have long known: young people have tremendous potential to change, grow, and mature.”

“[T]here’s no doubt in my mind that he should be where he is [in prison],” the mother of a teen sentenced to life without parole told Human Rights Watch. “Just not forever.”

Robert D., a 36-year-old who is serving life without parole for a crime that occurred when he was in high school, said: “They said a kid can’t get the death penalty, but life without parole, it’s the same thing. I’m condemned.”

There is a growing recognition that adolescents are different from adults in ways relevant to criminal behavior. The US Supreme Court stated in recent decisions, “Age is a reality that courts cannot ignore,” and, “Punishments that did not seem cruel and unusual at one time may, in the light of reason and experience, be found cruel and unusual at a later time…”

Mark Osler, a law professor and a former federal prosecutor in Detroit argues that the science that is emerging suggests that we need to continue to look at juveniles differentially from adults.  Science has shown that the brain of teenagers is still unformed.

“[The teenage brain] essentially is different from what adult brains are,” he continued.  “Essentially that means if we’re making a judgment about a 14-year-old… we’re not looking at the same brain that’s going to emerge later.”

Ashley Nellis, in the Sentencing Project’s report, said, “Most juveniles serving life without parole sentences experienced trauma and neglect long before they engaged in their crimes.”

She added, “The findings from this survey do not excuse the crimes committed but they help explain them. With time, rehabilitation and maturity, some of these youth could one day safely re-enter society and contribute positively to their families and their communities.”

Senator Yee’s SB 9 is supported by numerous and diverse organizations, coalitions, and faith-based groups, and has wide support from editorial boards across the state, including The Sacramento Bee, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Ventura County Star.

On Thursday, civil rights leader Dolores Huerta joined Senator Yee in his call for reconsideration of SB 9.

“I urge every Assemblymember to vote with their heart and support this common sense legislation,” said Dolores Huerta.

“Sentencing children to die in prison is wrong and inhumane, and runs counter to everything we know about a child’s brain development,” said Ms. Huerta. “Equally disturbing is California’s dubious distinction of having the worst racial disparities in sentencing children to life without parole.”

“Eighty-five percent of youth sentenced to LWOP are kids of color,” said Ms. Huerta. “Many of these black and Latino kids could not afford private counsel – 65 percent were not told they could have someone speak on their behalf at sentencing and 70 percent didn’t even have one person speak for them at the hearing. SB 9 will help reverse these disturbing trends, and allow California to rightfully join the rest of the world in giving kids a second chance.”

Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg also added his voice in support on Friday, stating, “I believe in life without parole for people who commit the most heinous crimes and remain a threat to the public. However, there must always be an exception for genuine redemption. If a child commits a terrible crime and decades later has shown remorse and is not a danger to the public, the law ought to allow for the possibility of a second chance. Senator Yee’s courageous efforts deserve support.”

In California, in 45 percent of 127 cases surveyed, youth who had been sentenced to life without parole had not been the person to physically commit a murder, Human Rights Watch found. They included a youth who stood by the garage door as a lookout during a car theft, a youth who sat in the getaway car during a burglary, and a youth who participated in a robbery in which murder was not part of the plan.

While each of these offenders may have participated in a felony, such as robbery, or aided and abetted a crime, none thought murder would result, and none were the trigger person. Previous research by Human Rights Watch found that an estimated 59 percent of youth serving life without the possibility of parole nationally were first-time offenders.

Many of these crimes are committed by youth under an adult’s influence. Acting under the influence and, in some cases, the direction of an adult cannot be considered a mitigating factor by the sentencing judge in California, and in over half of the cases in which there was an adult co-defendant, the adult received a lower sentence than the juvenile.

California also has one of the worst racial disparity rates in the nation in the use of sentences of life without parole for juveniles. African-American youth are sentenced to life without parole at 18.3 times the rate of white youth, and Hispanic youth at 5 times the rate of whites.

California’s policy to lock up youth offenders for the rest of their lives also comes with a significant financial cost. Even if the state stops handing down juvenile life without parole sentences today, the current population with this sentence will cost the state approximately half a billion dollars. Human Rights Watch calculates that since 1990, California has spent between $66 and $83 million incarcerating this population, and the costs will only grow as more youth are sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

“California’s use of life without parole for young people is especially unjust,” Calvin said. “Passing this bill sets the stage for more accurate justice, for rehabilitation, and for modernization and streamlining of the criminal justice system.”

“The neuroscience is clear – brain maturation continues well through adolescence and thus impulse control, planning, and critical thinking skills are not yet fully developed,” said Senator Yee, who is a child psychologist. “SB 9 reflects that science and provides the opportunity for compassion and rehabilitation that we should exercise with minors.”

“SB 9 is not a get-out-of-jail-free card; it is an incredibly modest proposal that respects victims, international law, and the fact that children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults,” said Senator Yee. “I am hopeful that we will garner the votes this year to finally pass this important measure.”

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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