Bill scraps life without parole for youths convicted of murder
A bill filed in the Arkansas Legislature would eliminate life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders — both in the future and for those already convicted.
House Bill 1197, sponsored by Rep. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, and Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, would amend state sentencing statutes to eliminate the possibility of a life-without-parole sentence for offenders who were under age 18 when they committed their crimes.
Those convicted of murder would be eligible for parole after 28 years. Those convicted of murder but who did not actually take a life or intend to take a life would be eligible for parole after 20 years.
Supporters of the bill said several surrounding states, including Texas, have already eliminated life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders.
“I want to be very clear that this does not eliminate
the possibility of someone serving an actual life sentence. It does not guarantee that someone will be paroled,” Leding said. “But it does make more opportunities for people convicted of crimes when they are 15 or 16 to be eligible for parole.”
“We’re not trying to absolve people. Somebody who murdered someone still needs to account for that crime with severe punishment, but I don’t think it’s right to spend life in prison for something they did when they were 16,” he said.
The proposal comes two years after the Legislature passed Act 1490 of 2013 to get the state’s sentencing laws in compliance with a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eliminated mandatory life-without-parole sentencing for juveniles.
In Miller v. Alabama, which was heard in tandem with the Arkansas case Jackson v. Hobbs, the court found that state mandatory sentences of life without parole for minors violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. However, the ruling did not bar juries from deciding to send young offenders to prison for life without parole.
Before Act 1490, state law required that anyone convicted of capital murder either be sentenced to death or to life without parole. Act 1490 changed the law to exclude youthful offenders from the mandatory life-without-parole sentences, but still allowed juries to opt for that punishment if a case warranted.
Act 1490’s changes did not apply retroactively to convictions or sentences handed down before its passage.
Opponents of HB1197 said the current bill does not include that caveat and would retroactively require resentencing hearings for the 56 Arkansas inmates now serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles.
In several sections, the bill includes the following: “A person who was a minor at the time of the offense that was committed before, on, or after the effective date of this act.”
Representatives from the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association said they’re concerned about that language. They sent out surveys to prosecuting attorneys around the state shortly after the bill was filed, asking that association members read the legislation carefully and relay any concerns.
Lori Kumpuris, the deputy prosecutor coordinator for the association, said the group’s legislative committee There are 57 inmates in Arkansas prisons who were convicted as juveniles and sentenced to life without parole. One of those, Kuntrell Jackson, has been resentenced in accordance with a Supreme Court order and is not included in these numbers.
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1970s House Bill 1197, in addition to eliminating the possibility of a life sentence without parole for those convicted of crimes committed as juveniles, would also change the requirements for time served before eligible for parole. There are 66 prisoners serving life with parole for crimes committed as juveniles. Of those, 13 were convicted of non-homicide crimes, which under the bill would make them eligible for parole after 20 years instead of 28 years. was not in favor of the bill as written. And with most of the surveys returned late last week, the association is strongly against the bill, she said.
“During the last legislative session, we worked to make sure we were in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court on this issue, and we think we have remedied that,” Kumpuris said. “There is some concern that the bill includes retroactivity language. Generally, on retroactivity, the concern is — especially if a jury sentenced someone — if the change is applied retroactively, the concern is that the prosecutor presented their case to a jury and outlined the sentencing guidelines, and the jury made a decision on that sentence based on those guidelines.”
Kumpuris said when the association worked with lawmakers in 2013, its members helped set the 28-year minimum time served before youths sentenced to life without parole would be eligible to seek parole.
The association’s Executive Director Bob McMahan was part of that discussion and explained that since Class Y felonies have sentences of “between 10 and 40 years or life,” the association believed that a convict given a life sentence should serve at least 70 percent of that designation of years, which is 28 years, before being eligible for parole.
HB1197 divides juveniles convicted of murder into two categories.
If the youth “caused or had a purpose to cause the death of a person,” he would be eligible for parole after 28 years.
If the youth “did not cause and did not have a purpose to cause the death of a person,” he would be eligible for parole after 20 years.
The latter sentence may arise when a juvenile’s accomplice pulls the trigger, for example.
That’s what happened in Jackson v. Hobbs.
Kuntrell Jackson was 14 at the time he and two other boys robbed a video store in Blytheville. One of the other boys shot and killed the store clerk.
Jackson was sentenced to life without parole. The U.S. Supreme Court remanded the case to the state and ordered that he be resentenced. According to the Arkansas Department of Correction’s website, Jackson is now eligible for parole on April 14 of this year. His revised sentence, if he is not granted parole, is 240 months, meaning he is scheduled for release in April 2021.
There are 121 prisoners — three women and 118 men — serving life sentences in Arkansas prisons who were convicted of crimes they committed as juveniles, according to Department of Correction records. Of those, 56 are serving life sentences without parole for crimes that reach as far back as April 1974.
Leding said some of those
arkansasonline.com/legislature inmates would be approaching eligibility or already eligible for parole if his bill passes. He said the retroactive language is in the bill because the U.S. Supreme Court decision was unclear on that point.
In December, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a Louisiana case that would clarify the court’s stance on retroactively applying its Miller v. Alabama ruling, but it’s uncertain when that case will be decided.
Irvin, the bill’s Senate sponsor, said she has personal reasons for wanting to see the legislation passed. When she was a teenager, her home was burglarized by some other teens.
“They broke into our house, and you know, they ate our cookies and drank our Cokes. The oldest of them was 14 or 15,” she said. “But they went through the house, and they found a gun. They took it and loaded it. … We called the police and [the teens] got scared and ran into the woods behind our house. They started shooting at the police. And thank God that the police were so professional and were able to talk them down, and no one got hurt.”
Irvin said the instance has shaped her feelings about juvenile justice.
“Do I believe that a 10- or a 12-year-old has the mental ability to determine whether the crime is serious or think in terms of the consequences … well, I think they react as a child would react,” she said. “They make decisions with a brain that is not developed enough to make the decisions adults make. There are a number of states that have passed this kind of legislation, and it just seems appropriate to take a look at it.”
Leding said he expects the bill to go before the House Judiciary Committee this week. He said the bill faces an uphill battle in some ways, but with the current discussion on prison crowding and backlogs of state prisoners in county jails, he hopes more legislators will be open to discussing the measure.
“Cost is obviously not the only lens that this issue should be viewed in, but as part of that discussion, the average cost to house a juvenile inmate for life is $2.5 million,” he said. “We hope that there will be a broader look at this, but with the overcrowding issues we’re dealing with, every bit helps.”
“We’re not trying to absolve people. Somebody who murdered someone still needs to account for that crime with severe punishment, but I don’t think it’s right to spend life in prison for something they did when they
were 16.” — Rep. Greg Leding