Between 1992 and 1999, 99 states and the District of Columbia made it easier to try juveniles as adults." By 2012, there were 28 states across the nation that were handing out mandatory life-without- parole sentences to juveniles." By 29015, more that 2,230 people in the United States were serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed as juveniles, according to data complied by the Phillips Black Project, a nonprofit law practice that collected information in all 50 states." [1]
In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, the racial disparity is even starker: Almost half of the parish population is white but 32 of the 33 serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed while juveniles are black One of those 32 is Taurus Buchanan, who at the age of 16 threw one punch that caused one young boy in a fight among three boys to crumble to the ground. The fallen boy never got up and subsequently died in a hospital. Because Taurus was over the age of 14 he was automatically tried and convicted of second degree murder, and, also automatically, sentenced to life without parole.
The Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law organization based in Alabama, found that there were 73 cases in which juveniles were sent away for crimes they committed at ages 13 or 14. One was sentenced to life for kidnapping, another for sexual battery, another for taking part in a robbery in which someone was shot but survived.
The U.S. Supreme Court has been moving step-by-step to lessen the punishment for serious crimes committed by juveniles. In a 2005 ruling, the Court banned use of the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles, Five years later, the Court prohibited sentencing kids to life-without-parole for cases that didn't involve a homicide. And in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the Court extended that ban to homicide cases. In 2015, the Court heard a case out of Louisiana on whether states can be compelled to apply the Miller ruling retroactively. The decision is pending.
The state of Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of lifers sent away for crimes committed when they were juveniles. As of the most recent reading, Louisiana has 247 of such lifers, which translates to 5.31 per 100,000 residents. Of those 247 lifers, 199, or 81 percent, are black. In regard to retroactive resentencing, there are 11 or 12 states that have either denied or have not addressed retroactive resentencing and about an equal number have it under court review. In sheer numbers, Pennsylvania and Michigan lead the nation, with 376 and 368 respectively.
The number of inmates serving juvenile life without parole per 100,000 residents, in the top ten states: The national rate is 0.719. State followed by rate: Louisiana - 5.31; Michigan - 3.71; Pennsylvania - 2.94; Mississippi - 2.20; Arkansas - 1.92; Missouri - 1.70; Nebraska - 1.44; Florida - 1.14; Colorado - 0.90; and North Carolina - 0.78.
ADDENDUMS:
*According to the Brady Campaign, seven children are killed by guns each day.
*Today, school.nurses, police officers and firefighters increasingly carry naloxone, a synthetic drug used to counteract the effects of narcotic overdosage. New laws in 37 states allow friends, and family members of opiate users to obtain prescriptions.
*Tom Perkins, who as a Hewlett-Packard board member, voted to fire Carly Fiorino,told an interviewer that in an ideal system,"You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes."
Footnote
[1] Corey G, Johnson and Ken Armstrong, "This Boy's Life," Mother Jones, January/February 2016.
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