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High Court Breaks From Leniency For Juvenile Offenders

2021

The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 6-3, in Jones v. Mississippi that juvenile offenders may be sentenced to life without parole. The majority opinion said a judge need not make a finding of “permanent incorrigibility” before imposing such a punishment. It is the first time in almost two decades that the Court has shifted away from rules establishing more leniency for juvenile offenders. After striking down the death penalty for juvenile offenders, the Court, in a series of decisions, limited life without parole sentences to the rarest cases — those juvenile offenders convicted of murder who are so incorrigible that there is no hope for their rehabilitation.