Re-sentencing for some to come up next session
Recent rulings alter juvenile life without parole sentences
Oklahoma lawmakers have been weighing how to respond to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have limited the application of life without parole sentences for juveniles.
At least one legislator, House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, plans to author a bill for the session that begins in February. She held an interim study recently to gather various perspectives.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to do the re-sentencing process and what we’re going to do with this issue going forward,” Virgin, D-Norman, said.
More than 40 Oklahoma inmates who are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed as juveniles qualify for resentencing following the court decisions, officials said. Some are going through that process now.
Kathryn Brewer, assistant executive coordinator for the District Attorneys Council, said representatives from the council are scheduled to meet with Virgin next week.
“We’re open to dialogue and discussion but we would oppose legislation that eliminates life without parole completely,” she said.
Brewer said they believe that “a balanced approach” should be taken where juvenile life without parole is retained as an option but the requirements of recent Supreme Court rulings are still met.
“There are situations in which juvenile life without parole should be an option and where in order to ensure public safety, that option needs to remain,” Brewer said.
In 2012, having already banned the death penalty for juveniles and life without parole for juveniles not convicted of homicide, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for offenders under the age of 18 convicted of murder violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments.
In 2016, the court ruled that its 2012 decision must be applied retroactively and said the severest punishment must be reserved for “the rarest of juvenile offenders,” whose crimes reflect “permanent incorrigibility.”
Research has shown that adolescents’ brains are still developing and that adolescents have a greater propensity for rehabilitation compared to adults.
In the wake of those Supreme Court rulings, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered resentencing for some murderers who were juveniles at the time of the killing.
In 2016, the appeals court ordered resentencing of Chancey Allen Luna, who fatally shot an Australian jogger in 2013 in Duncan, and Tucker Ryan McGee, who fatally shot JaRay Wilson, 16, of Weatherford in 2012. Wilson’s body was not discovered for more than a year.
In both cases, the appeals court concluded the punishment of life without parole was “constitutionally infirm” because jurors were not presented evidence involving “important youth-related considerations.” The appeals court came up with a new instruction to be given to juries in future murder cases involving defendants who were under age 18 at the time of the crime.
McGee was resentenced in June to life. Luna’s case is pending.
In May, the appeals court overturned the noparole life sentence of Robert Stevens, who was 17 when he helped kidnap and kill Johnny Lawrence
near Piedmont in 1994, and granted a new sentencing.
Previous legislation stalled
The Supreme Court decisions have spurred efforts in Oklahoma and other states to revisit laws related to the punishment of juvenile offenders during recent years.
The Oklahoma Indigent Defense System has identified 43 Oklahoma inmates affected by the court rulings, although officials said it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact number.
Nearly two dozen of those offenders have cases in the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System’s coverage area, which includes everything outside of Tulsa and Oklahoma counties.
Virgin authored a bill in the last legislative session that would have placed the re-sentencing process in front of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board.
Virgin said district attorneys and district courts don’t have the resources to re-litigate all of the older cases. Moreover, she said, new trials could force family members and others to relive the trauma.
“That’s something that I want to be very conscious of — not putting them through essentially an entire new trial,” Virgin said.
The bill also would have outlawed life without parole sentences for juveniles and ensured that any juvenile who was sentenced to life would have a meaningful opportunity for review, Virgin said. The bill made it through the House Public Safety Committee but wasn’t heard on the floor.
A separate legislative effort to address the issue last session was vetoed by the governor.
Twenty-one states, including Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Arkansas, have banned life without parole for juveniles, and a handful of other states have no one serving the sentence, according to The Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit. Oklahoma lawmakers and legal experts have mixed opinions about the matter.
Jason Hicks, district attorney for Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties, spoke during the interim study meeting and asked lawmakers to leave life without parole on the table for certain offenders.
He shared the story of Alyssa Wiles, a 14-yearold who was stabbed to death by her 16-year-old ex-boyfriend, Michael Ray, in 2013. Ray is serving a life without parole sentence. Hicks said Ray was one of the “scariest offenders that I’ve dealt with in my career.”
“A juvenile like that should never see the light of day,” he said.
Critics of life without parole for juveniles argue that juveniles’ brains aren’t fully developed and many can lead productive lives if given a second chance.
“We’re not talking about opening the floodgates and letting everybody out of prison,” said
James Dold, advocacy director for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, which is opposed to sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of parole.
“What we’re simply talking about is when we’re dealing with children, making sure that there’s some opportunity to have their sentence reviewed either by a judge or parole board later in life to see who they’ve grown and changed into.”