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This is what the Supreme Court has become...

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iBlockhead
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25 Jun 2012, 4:32 pm

This link details the recent Supreme Court decision about mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles. Amazingly (get this, you won't believe it) it was split down party lines :?

Let's see what the article says:

Quote:
The Supreme Court on Monday threw out mandatory life in prison without parole for juveniles.The ruling continued its trend of holding that children cannot be automatically punished the same way as criminal adults without considering their age and other factors.


And this:

Quote:
Monday's decision left open the possibility that individual judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder, but said state and federal laws cannot automatically impose such a sentence.


As for the criminal in the case:

Quote:
Strange said he didn't expect the ruling to be applied retroactively to others whose sentences are already final. And while Miller will get another sentencing hearing, "the prosecution will have a compelling argument that he should receive a life-without-parole sentence," he said


Seems fine by me. Now let's hear this opinion from Justice Alito on why he thinks mandatory life sentences should be OK:

Justice Alito wrote:
Under the majority opinion, Alito said, "Even a 17 1/2-year-old who sets off a bomb in crowded mall or guns down a dozen students and teachers is a `child' and must be given a chance to persuade a judge to permit his release into society. Nothing in the Constitution supports this arrogation of legislative authority."


I would like to point out Charles Manson does not have a mandatory life sentence and has been denied parole 12 times. So there is a chance the worst ones are going to stay in prison, but that is just me, I don't know for sure :?

The Court needs to be dissolved, or at least give them term limits. Every single judgment is partisan anymore, and if justices are making personal opinion without taking into account actual facts in their argument (which I am sure both sides do, don't accuse me of being just on one side), they need to go.



John_Browning
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25 Jun 2012, 4:40 pm

iBlockhead wrote:
I would like to point out Charles Manson does not have a mandatory life sentence and has been denied parole 12 times. So there is a chance the worst ones are going to stay in prison, but that is just me, I don't know for sure :?

Manson and his followers that participated in the murders were all on death row but got their sentences commuted during the moratorium on capital punishment. The 5th amendment forbids changing their sentence back to death unless they were convicted of another murder that went undiscovered.


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iBlockhead
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25 Jun 2012, 4:49 pm

John_Browning wrote:
Manson and his followers that participated in the murders were all on death row but got their sentences commuted during the moratorium on capital punishment. The 5th amendment forbids changing their sentence back to death unless they were convicted of another murder that went undiscovered.


But he has parole...



xenon13
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25 Jun 2012, 5:38 pm

The Right claims that there is an army of liberals who think of nothing but to find ways to release dangerous killers onto the streets obviously so that there's more killing, for their own amusement presumably. This is why they like Death and LWOPP, because in this way these liberals can be thwarted. Parole is such a dangerous thing to them because that allows these liberals to conspire to kill people indirectly through these killers they're scheming to release. Better to give prisoners no other reason to behave other than the mass torture regime of the supermax for those who do not.



ADoyle90815
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26 Jun 2012, 5:16 pm

iBlockhead wrote:
John_Browning wrote:
Manson and his followers that participated in the murders were all on death row but got their sentences commuted during the moratorium on capital punishment. The 5th amendment forbids changing their sentence back to death unless they were convicted of another murder that went undiscovered.


But he has parole...


That's true, but he and his followers have been denied every time they had a parole hearing. I think one follower claimed to have terminal cancer, but the parole was denied.



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26 Jun 2012, 9:56 pm

To be fair Manson never killed anyone he had his cult followers kill for him.