By Mike Householder
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that said juveniles convicted of murder can be eligible for parole should not be retroactively applied for most youths sentenced in Michigan, a state appeals court panel said in a recently released ruling.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruling came in the case of Raymond Carp, a St. Clair County man who was convicted of a murder committed when he was 15.
Michigan has more than 350 prisoners serving mandatory no-parole sentences for murders committed when they were younger than 18, one of the highest totals in the U.S.
The Supreme Court’s June 25 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.
In Michigan, juveniles prosecuted as adults for first-degree murder automatically get life in prison without parole.
The Supreme Court “decision is procedural and not substantive in nature and does not comprise a watershed ruling,” the three-judge panel said in a 41-page opinion dated last Thursday.
Although the panel said the high court’s decision cannot be applied retroactively to juvenile inmates who already have exhausted the direct appeals process, the judges advised lawmakers to modify state statutes to comply with the ruling.
“We urge our Legislature to address with all possible expediency the issues encompassed by and resulting from (the Supreme Court case) and that necessitate the revision of our current statutory sentencing scheme for juveniles,” the ruling said.
Carp’s lawyer, Patricia Selby, said she was “very disappointed” by the decision, as was Dawn Van Hoek, the director of the State Appellate Defender Office, a state-funded agency representing Michigan criminal defendants.
“We’re disappointed with the result, but optimistic about potential results as the appellate process continues,” Van Hoek said, referring to an expected appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court as well as a case before a federal judge in Ann Arbor who has been overseeing a separate lawsuit about Michigan’s mandatory no-parole sentences for juveniles.
Meanwhile, state Attorney General Bill Schuette, who says the ruling shouldn’t benefit people already in prison and whose office filed a brief in the case, said last Friday he was most pleased about the effect the ruling would have on victims and their families.
“The threat of hauling hundreds of crime victims and their families back into court to relive these horrific murders has already opened many old wounds,” Schuette said in a statement. “Fortunately, the Court of Appeals agreed to follow long-standing precedent that says U.S. Supreme Court rulings addressing criminal justice processes are not retroactive.
“I pray that the families of those murdered can find some comfort in the knowledge that their days in court are over.”
Deborah Labelle, an attorney who represents several inmates sentenced to life as juveniles on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the appeals court panel’s finding is “wrong on the retroactivity” issue and should have given proper consideration to the high court’s finding that sentencing teens to life goes against the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
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Associated Press writer Ed White contributed to this report.
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