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Summary: Defence lawyers outraged after governor responds to ban on mandatory life sentences by commuting them to 60 years.
[22 July 2012] - Lawyers acting for prisoners given mandatory life without parole sentences for murders they committed aged 13 to 17 are vowing to challenge the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, over his open defiance of a recent US supreme court ruling that bans such penalties. Branstad, a Republican, wielded his executive powers last week to ensure, in effect, that none of the 38 juvenile murderers in Iowa who were sentenced to die in captivity will ever become free. The governor commuted their sentences, as he is required to under the supreme court judgement issued in June that prohibits mandatory life without parole sentences for offenders convicted of murders they committed under the age of 18. But Branstad went on openly to confound the ruling of the highest court in the nation by imposing an alternative 60-year sentence on all of Iowa's 38 prisoners in that position. Taking their median age at the time of offences to be 15, that would mean that the first time these individuals could even apply for parole would be at the age of 75. Lawyers acting for the juveniles offenders have reacted to Branstad's move with outrage. Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative who brought the test cases before the supreme court that led to the prohibition, called his actions "cynical" and said it "reveals the same politics of fear and anger that has led to decades of excessive and unfair sentencing". Stevenson added that Iowa law does not permit the governor of the state to circumvent the courts. "There will be challenges to this and I believe they will be successful." America is the only country in the world that is known to sentence children to die in prison with no hope of release. There are currently believed to be almost 2,500 prisoners serving life without parole sentences imposed when they were younger than 18. More than 2,000 of them received the penalty because it was mandatory – in other words the trial judge had no discretion to hand out any other punishment. The supreme court ruling, delivered by justice Elena Kagan on behalf of a five to four majority, found that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles were a breach of the eighth amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. She wrote that "our decisions rested not only on common sense – on what 'any parent knows' – but on science and social science as well," adding that developments in brain science show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds. The supreme court ruling permits judges still to sentence teenaged murderers to die in prison, but only if they have fully considered the case on its individual merits with thoughtful account given to child status. Branstad's imposition of a blanket 60 years appears to fly in the face of that injunction. Legal challenges to the decision are likely to flow swiftly both from lawyers acting for the 38 and possibly from civil rights groups. Randall Wilson, legal director of the ACLU in Iowa, said he was looking closely at the executive order "with an eye to potential litigation or assisting attorneys who want to protect their clients' right to an individual sentence regardless of what the governor has done". Christine Lockhead, one of the 38, was given life without parole for jointly, with her then-boyfriend, stabbing to death a bus driver in 1985. Her lawyer, Gordon Allen, said that in his view the governor's order was a violation of the spirit of the supreme court ruling and as a result it would be overturned. "I think it's certainly questionable," he told the Associated Press. Announcing the across-the-board sentence, Branstad said that he had been inspired to make it having had conversations with the families of murder victims. "Justice is a balance, and these commutations ensure that justice is balanced with punishment for those vicious crimes and taking into account public safety," he said. The governor, with apparent blatant disregard for Kagan's judgment, added: "First-degree murder is an intentional and premeditated crime, and those who are found guilty are dangerous and should be kept off the streets." Tom Harkin, the democratic senator for Iowa has come out in condemnation of the governor. "I disagree with governor Branstad's position on this. [Sixty years] is a life sentence. Hopefully civilisation is progressing to the point where we understand that sometimes kids do impetuous things. Sometimes they get caught up in things." Further Information:
pdf: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jul/22/iowa-governor-defies-juvenile-...