Terrance Graham was only 16 years old when he was convicted of attempted armed robbery and armed burglary. He served 12 months is prison and was then later released. Six months after his release he committed armed home robbery and was then sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without parole. This is an extremely rare case because its a juvenile being sentenced to life imprisonment when the juvenile was not convicted of murder. On appeal, Graham argued that sentencing lifetime imprisonment without parole to a juvenile is violating the 8th amendment and moreover constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The state of Florida did not agree and therefore Terrance Graham was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment for a non-homicidal crime in 2006. In 2010, last year this case was brought up again, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy spoke on behalf of the majority of the country who believed that non-homicidal cases of juveniles should not be sentenced to life imprisonment because it completely violates the 8th amendment not to mention the idea of it is rejected by the entire world. This case was soon taken to the Supreme Court where Grahams voice was finally heard. On May 17th 2010 the Supreme court voted 6-3 meaning that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole when the crime was non-homicidal . However, there are still currently 129 adults serving non-parole lifetime imprisonment sentences that were committed as juveniles, 77 of those people are located in Florida. Terrance Graham is now being re-sentenced, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has stated that he will still receive a long sentence for the violent crimes he did commit but not a lifetime sentence.
Roper v. Simmons
In 1993 Christopher Simmons brutally murdered Shirley Crook at the age of 17. When the case went on trial the Simmons confessed to murder and even reenacted the murder at the crime scene on videotape. The jury soon recommended the death penalty because of the brutality of the murder and the vast amount of evidence. The courts continued to uphold the death sentence until 2002 when the Atkins v. Virginia case occurred, which overturned the death penalty for the mentally retarded. After that case Simmons filed for a petition for state post conviction relief. Meaning modification of his sentence. Simmons was then sentenced to lifetime imprisonment without parole instead of the death penalty. This case further created the law that the U.S. Supreme Court voted on in which juveniles cannot receive capital punishment (death penalty.)
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