Supreme Court ruling prompted resentencings

On Jan. 25 a divided U.S. Supreme Court said an earlier ruling that struck down automatic life terms with no chance of parole for teen murderers should be applied retroactively. The ruling means inmates convicted years ago must be considered for parole or given a new sentence. The court’s ruling came in the case of Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison since 1963 for killing a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge, La. Montgomery was 17 at the time. The decision doesn’t bar judges from sentencing teen killers to life in prison, but the court has said life sentences for teens should be rare, and only used in the worst cases. The court’s ruling could affect more than 1,000 prison inmates across the country who were involved in murders while they were teens. Some of those inmates have been behind bars more than 50 years. In June, Lincoln County Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis vacated the sentences of 56 inmates in Arkansas who were minors when they were sentenced to life without parole.