LANSING, MI – Mandatory life-without-parole sentences for emerging adults is unconstitutional, said Amy Fettig, acting co-executive director for Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), in a statement last week to the Michigan Supreme Court deeming.
Currently, “more than 800 individuals in Michigan are serving life without parole for crimes committed before the age of 21, with close to 900 individuals serving the same sentence for crimes committed before the age of 25,” according to the FJP
The FJP charges these two groups “account for nearly half of the state’s entire life without parole prison population, noting the “racial disparities in these sentences are stark.”
Black people account for nearly 12 percent of the overall population of Michigan; however, they “represent 68 percent of those serving life without parole.” Of those who are serving life without parole who were under 25 years old at the time of the offense, 75 percent are Black.
“These figures reveal systemic racism, and a sentencing rooted in discrimination rather than culpability,” the FJP claims.
In companion amicus briefs submitted in The State of Michigan v. Montario Taylor and The State of Michigan v. Andrew Czarnecki, FJP argued “juvenile life without parole sentences violate state and federal constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Fettig claims these decisions “go against an overwhelming and incontrovertible body of well-established research demonstrating that young adults do not have the same fully developed judgment, emotional regulation, or risk assessment ability of fully grown adults.”
In many cases, life-without-parole sentences for 19- and 20-year-olds “adversely affects public safety…studies show that people ‘age out of crime’ as their brains develop,” argues Fettig.
The FJP explains forcing these sentences on those who cannot independently rent a vehicle or legally drink “is an obviously cruel and unjust form of punishment that should be deemed unconstitutional by Michigan’s Supreme Court,” concludes Fettig.
