Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Washington, May 18, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Supreme Court On Monday came up with a path breaking juvenile criminal law. The Apex Court ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without a parole. The new law says that imposing life sentence on a juvenile without a parole leads to the violation of the Constitution’s prohibition of the Court of providing cruel and unusual punishment to the criminal. The Supreme Court has however said that the new rule of life sentence with parole will see an exception in cases where the juvenile has been convicted of murder.

The new law follows the 2005 ruling when the justices claimed that the accused who had committed the criminal offense before the age of 18 cannot be sentenced to death. On Monday, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that “A life-without-parole” sentence given to juvenile offender denies the youth the chance to show his maturity and development in the outer world. The justice also added that the prison term without a parole does not provide the imprisoned youth the chance to get in touch with the society or reconciliation with it and leaves him without any hopes. According to Justice Anthony Kennedy the prison term deprives the juvenile of the “chance for fulfillment outside prison walls”.

The Supreme Court revealed that at present around 129 U.S. youth are serving such a life sentence without being involved in murder cases. While many youths have been living their life behind the bars for burglary cases, many other have been involved with dangerous criminal acts. The Court ruling followed the appeal made by the attorney of a 17 year-old armed burglar who argued at the court that the life sentence provided to the burglar violates the ban that the U.S. constitution has put on “cruel or unusual punishments”.