Justia Juvenile Law Opinion Summaries

Defendant was convicted and sentenced to death in 1995 for murder. Because defendant was seventeen years old at the time of the murder, the state court eventually set aside his death sentence and resentenced him to life imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contended that his life without parole sentence was an unconstitutional penalty for him because he was not yet eighteen years old at the time he committed the murder. The court held that it owed 28 U.S.C. 2254(d)(1) deference to the state trial and appellate court decisions that defendant's life without parole sentence, and the procedures under which it was imposed, were not unconstitutional in light of the Roper v. Simmons decision. View "Loggins v. Thomas, et al." on Justia Law