ANN ARBOR (AP) — A federal judge won’t stop the process of resentencing hundreds of Michigan prisoners who are serving no-parole sentences.
Judge John Corbett O’Meara last Wednesday turned down a request for an injunction that would have affected so-called juvenile lifers, prisoners who were sentenced to life for murder committed when they were under 18.
In the months ahead, they’ll be resentenced because the U.S. Supreme Court says automatic no-parole sentences for teens are illegal. The punishment still is possible but only after a thorough hearing at which a judge would learn more about the defendant’s background.
Lawyers for juvenile lifers claim a no-parole sentence still would be an unconstitutional punishment. But O’Meara says any challenge should first be made at the resentencing hearings in state court, not in federal court.
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