Court ruling offers rare hope of freedom

Associated Press

DETROIT

The Supreme Court ruling that banned states from imposing mandatory life sentences on juveniles offers an unexpected chance at freedom to more than 2,000 inmates who had almost no hope they would ever get out.

In more than two dozen states, lawyers now can ask for new sentences. And judges will have discretion to look beyond the crime at other factors such as a prisoner’s age at the time of the offense, the person’s background and perhaps evidence that an inmate has changed while incarcerated.

“The sentence may still be the same,” said Lawrence Wojcik, a Chicago lawyer who is co-chairman of the juvenile justice committee of the American Bar Association. “But even a sentence with a chance for parole gives hope.”

Virtually all of the sentences in question are for murder. When Henry Hill was an illiterate 16-year-old, he was linked to a killing at a park in Saginaw County and convicted of aiding and abetting murder.

Hill had a gun, but he never was accused of firing the fatal shot. Nonetheless, the sentence was auto-matic: life without parole. He has spent the past 32 years in Michigan prisons.

He heard about the Supreme Court decision while watching TV news in his cell.

“I got up hollering and rejoicing and praising God,” said Hill, who would like to renovate homes and be a mentor to children if he’s released.

The ruling also alarmed families of crime victims. Jessica Cooper, prosecutor in Oakland County, Mich., said her office has been taking calls from “distressed” relatives.

In Monday’s 5-4 decision, the high court said life without parole for juveniles violates the Constitution’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment. More than 2,000 people are in U.S. prisons under such a sentence, according to facts agreed on by attorneys for both sides of the case.