Graham v. Florida

Date: June 26, 2015

Citation: 567 US ‗‗‗ 2015

Issue: Life imprisonment without parole for juveniles in non-homicide crimes

Significance: In a 6–3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment does not permit imprisoning juvenile offenders for life without parole in non-homicide cases.

Background

In July of 2003, Terrence Graham and two accomplices tried to rob a barbecue restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. Graham was sixteen years old at the time. He was captured and charged as an adult with armed burglary and attempted armed robbery. He pleaded guilty to both charges. Under a plea agreement he was sentenced to three years of probation.

Less than six months later, Graham was arrested for an armed home invasion. He denied involvement in the home invasion robbery, but he admitted violating his probation by possessing a firearm and associating with people who were engaged in criminal activity.

Because Graham had violated the terms of his plea agreement, a new sentencing hearing was held. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for the attempted armed robbery (in July) and to life in prison for the armed burglary. Florida had abolished its parole system, and therefore there was no possibility of release. He had been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

A motion was filed with the trial court challenging his sentence on the basis that it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. His motion was denied. On appeal the First District Court of Appeal of Florida found that his sentence did not violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment. The United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in 2009. The Court set out to answer this question: Does the imposition of a life sentence without parole on a juvenile convicted of a non-homicidal offense violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment?

Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court ruled by a 6–3 majority that sentencing a juvenile offender to life in prison without parole for a non-homicidal crime is not permissible under the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause. In reversing the judgment of the First District Court of Appeal of Florida, the Supreme Court ruled that while even a juvenile offender does not need to receive a guarantee of eventual release, if a state imposes a life sentence there must be a realistic chance to be freed before the end of the term. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Chief Justice John Roberts, who concurred but wrote his own opinion.

Justice Kennedy asserted that the case implicated a particular type of sentence as it applies to juveniles, which is a whole class of offender. Because of this, the case was governed under a categorical analysis of three precedent rulings. Kennedy’s opinion stated that the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause is based on the idea that punishment should be in proportion to the crime committed. Precedent cases reviewing proportionality fell into two categories: Is a sentence excessive for first, a particular defendant’s crime, or second, a category of offenders? Because Graham involved a particular type of sentence as it applies to a class of offenders—juveniles—the majority opinion was that a life sentence without parole for a juvenile offender in a non-homicide crime is cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Kennedy concluded:

The Constitution prohibits the imposition of a life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide. A State need not guarantee the offender eventual release, but if it imposes a sentence of life it must provide him or her with some realistic opportunity to obtain release before the end of that term. The judgment of the First District Court of Appeal of Florida is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

Chief Justice Roberts concurred in this case but argued that such sentences should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a dissenting opinion in which he was joined by Justice Antonin Scalia and in part by Justice Samuel Alito. Justice Thomas argued that the Court had no authority to insert its own moral judgment ahead of the public in determining whether or not such a sentence could be imposed. He also noted that the Constitution includes no language about proportionality in the Eighth Amendment and concluded that the framers did not want such a standard to be used in order to decide if punishment was cruel and unusual. Justice Alito in a separate dissent added that nothing in the Court’s ruling prevented lengthy sentences without any possibility of parole.

Justice Stevens wrote a brief opinion concurring with the majority in which he rebutted Justice Thomas’ dissent. He was joined by Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor. Justice Stevens wrote that evolving standards of decency and proportionality had guided the Court’s rulings regarding the Eighth Amendment for at least a century. He stated that Justice Thomas’s interpretation was too rigid.

Impact

In the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, the Court had ruled that capital punishment could not apply to juvenile offenders. Graham v. Florida determined that the same prohibition extended to sentences of life without parole for non-homicide offenses. A district court in Iowa declared the Supreme Court ruling retroactive, which enabled a man serving a life sentence in Iowa to be resentenced to life but with the opportunity for parole.

State supreme courts in Missouri and Wisconsin subsequently ruled that a juvenile could be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in cases involving homicide. In 2012 the United States Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of a sentence of life without parole for a juvenile even in cases of murder. In Miller v. Alabama the Court found that such sentences also violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments clause of the Eighth Amendment.

Terrence Graham was resentenced in Florida in 2012 by the original trial judge. He was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.

Bibliography

Church, Wesley II, et al., eds. Juvenile Justice Sourcebook. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

"Graham v. Florida." The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth, n.d. Web. 15 January 2016.

"Graham v. Florida." Equal Justice Initiative. Equal Justice Initiative, 2014. Web. 15 January 2016.

"Graham v. Florida." Oyez. Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech, n.d. Web. 14 January 2016.

Ogletree, Charles Jr. Life Without Parole: America’s New Death Penalty. New York: New York UP, 2012. Print.