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- Title
State v. Kelliher: Providing a Meaningful Opportunity for Juvenile Offenders in North Carolina.
- Authors
PRICE, AMY R.
- Abstract
The United States is the only nation that still allows children to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, over the past few decades, courts have steadilyrecognized the important distinctions between adult criminal defendants and juvenile offenders, primarily acknowledging the impact of age, immaturity, inability to comprehend risk, and susceptibility to coercion on juvenile decisionmaking. This evolving understanding of adolescence has encouraged the growth of a trauma-informed juvenile justice system and the abolishment of death penalty sentences and mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders. North Carolina recently expanded its juvenile sentencing protections. In State v. Kelliher, the Supreme Court of North Carolina found that consecutive sentences exceeding forty years before parole eligibility are de facto life without parole sentences and that de facto life sentences for juvenile offenders who are neither incorrigible nor irredeemable violate the Eighth Amendment and the broader article I, section 27 of the North Carolina Constitution. This Recent Development examines the Kelliher decision, dissects the court’s federal and state constitutional analyses, and assesses the holding's broader implications for juvenile justice.
- Subjects
JUVENILE delinquency; CRIMINAL sentencing; JUVENILE justice administration; LEGAL status of juvenile offenders; TRIAL &; sentencing of children as adults; CAPITAL punishment; NORTH Carolina. Supreme Court
- Publication
North Carolina Law Review, 2024, Vol 102, Issue 4, p1275
- ISSN
0029-2524
- Publication type
Article