SPRINGFIELD | Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling against life without parole for nonhomicidal juvenile offenders is getting a mixed reaction from advocacy groups in Illinois.
Dora Larson, vice president of the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers, has been a victim advocate since her 10-year-old daughter, Victoria Larson, was brutally murdered by a 15-year-old boy in 1979.
Larson said the Supreme Court decision was not as bad as it could have been.
"We are so happy that they upheld and made no decision on juvenile lifers without parole who committed murder because if this would have happened, we would have had to have re-sentencing and parole every five years," Larson said.
The Supreme Court was asked to rule in Graham vs. Florida, a case involving Terrance Graham, who was twice convicted of armed robbery when he was 16 and 17 and given life without parole in Florida.
The court found in a 5-4 decision that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole for nonhomicidal crimes is unconstitutional. The justices stopped short of ending life-without-parole sentencing for all juveniles.
Larson said the court's decision will affect 109 inmates around the country. Each of those inmates now must go through a resentencing process and be subject to parole hearings every five years. She said there are between 1,200 and 1,500 juveniles serving life without parole, the majority of whom were convicted of homicides.
Larson believes some juveniles are hopeless and need to be locked up for life to protect society, although she didn't say if she differentiates between homicidal and nonhomicidal juveniles.
"I'm saying that there are juvenile offenders that can't be fixed," Larson said. "I know that, and that's the reason we have to have prisons so they don't reoffend. Usually if a juvenile is sentenced to life without parole, they have a long, long criminal history. Oftentimes it starts in preschool."
Juvenile protection agencies believe the Supreme Court ruling is a good thing.
Mary Reynolds, policy advocate at the Juvenile Justice Initiative, said the court's decision puts the U.S. closer to the rest of the world on juvenile justice.
"The international norm does not endorse using life without parole in any circumstances for juveniles," Reynolds said. "We believe this is a step in the right direction."
Reynolds also said the decision is important because it reaffirmed the psychological and developmental differences between adults and children.
