The state of Michigan joined a handful of states that recognize young people can change and should have the opportunity for freedom.
The Michigan Supreme Court said that mandatorily subjecting anyone under the age of 21 to life without parole violates the Michigan Constitution and constitutes cruel punishment.
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The ruling results from years of litigation following Miller v. Alabama, in which the United States Supreme Court held that children and or young adults like Andrew Czarnecki and Montario Taylor, who each received a mandatory sentence of life without parole for offenses that occurred when they were 19 and 20 years old, cannot be subject to the harshest penalties possible under the law.
The ruling recognizes that late adolescents in their 20s share many of the same characteristics as their younger counterparts.
Thursday’s (April 10) decision is retroactive, and more than 580 Michiganders are now entitled to resentencing.
The State Appellate Defender Office’s Juvenile Lifer Unit (JLU) will seek additional funding to represent as many of those individuals as possible in their upcoming resentencing hearings.
Tina Olson, manager of SADO’s JLU and counsel for Taylor, said Thursday’s ruling was monumental and common sense.
SADO’s JLU consists of an elite group of attorneys and mitigation specialists who have expertise in advocating for children and late adolescents serving unconstitutional sentences into their adulthood.
Since its inception in 2016, the JLU has represented nearly 400 people sentenced to die in prison as children.
The JLU has successfully advocated for reduced sentences for hundreds of individuals, resulting in nearly 2,500 years of sentencing relief for young people and saving over $94 million in corrections costs.
Maya Menlo, counsel for Czarnecki and Taylor, said that young people can mature into responsible individuals who could one day give back to their communities.
Legal expert George Donnini talks Michigan Supreme Court ruling against life sentences
