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1 1 (April 26, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govedcf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional *.Research Service informrng the qeislative debate since 1914___________________ Jones v. Mississippi, the Eighth Amendment, and Juvenile Life Without Parole April 26, 2021 On April 22, 2021, the Supreme Court decided Jones v. Mississippi, holding that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments does not require a finding that a juvenile offender is permanently incorrigible before the juvenile may be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This Sidebar provides a basic discussion of the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence related to juvenile life without parole sentencing, then outlines the majority opinion, concurrence, and dissent in Jones. A previous Legal Sidebar provided additional background on the issue of juvenile life without parole sentencing, outlined the relevant precedents that the Supreme Court considered in Jones, and discussed the legal arguments presented in the case. The Eighth Amendment The Eighth Amendment provides: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Eighth Amendment to impose a categorical ban on the use of certain forms of punishment. In addition, the Court has held that certain punishments that are permissible in some circumstances are nonetheless unconstitutional as applied to particular classes of defendants. One class of offenders that has been the subject of considerable Eighth Amendment litigation is juvenile offenders. In the past decade and a half, the Supreme Court has issued several opinions outlining constitutional limitations on punishing juvenile offenders. First, in the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, the Court held that juvenile offenders may not constitutionally be sentenced to death. Five years later, in Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that juveniles may not be sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide offenses. In the 2012 case Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids any sentencing scheme that mandates life without parole for juvenile offenders upon conviction for certain offenses; however, the Court held that sentencers who consider an offender's youth and attendant characteristics may impose discretionary juvenile life without parole sentences in homicide cases. Finally, in the 2016 case Montgomery v. Louisiana, the Court held that Miller's prohibition on mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders applied retroactively to convictions that were final before Miller was decided. Justice Kennedy, joined by five other Justices, explained that Miller Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10593 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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