Earlier this week, the Michigan House of Representatives hastily passed a bill that ignores U.S. Supreme Court rulings, abandoning over 360 men and women serving cruel and unusual sentences in Michigan.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing of children to mandatory life without parole is unconstitutional.
Yet Henry Hill, Barbara Hernandez and hundreds of others still sit behind bars for crimes they committed when they were too young to vote, buy a lottery ticket, or sit on the very jury that convicted them.
Any sentencing reform must guarantee a meaningful opportunity for review for young people serving life without parole sentences. Senate Bill 319 falls short in that it:
- Young people under 18 could still be sentenced to life without parole as long as specific mitigating and aggravating factors are considered during the hearing.
- Minimum sentences for young people would still be extremely harsh, even if a prosecutor doesn't seek life without parole.
- Most shockingly, this bill would abandon over 350 people already sentenced to life without parole as children.
If the U.S. Supreme Court says these sentences are unconstitutional, how can we ignore those who are being punished by them? This legislation is wrong, and obviously not what the U.S. Supreme Court intended.
TAKE ACTION and urge legislators to push for honest reform, not half measures that allow this injustice to continue in our state.
By Merissa Kovach, Field Organizer
