Wayne Prosecutor Files Motions on 145 Juvenile Lifers to Comply with High Court

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Friday that her office ask the court to uphold life without parole sentences for 63 juvenile lifers and impose sentences of more than 25 years for 81 other teenage killers to comply with a pair of U.S. Supreme Court rulings

Motions filed in Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court Friday seek resentencing for 145 inmates affected by the 2012 high court ruling, which held that mandatory life-without-parole sentences handed down to juveniles violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

“We spent a significant amount of time analyzing each case,” Worthy said in a statement. “Although we had a short amount of time under the statute, we gave a considered and thoughtful review.”

Worthy said the prosecutor’s office is “far from over, and we have a monumental task before us.”

In 81 of the 141, prosecutors will seek sentences that exceed the 25-year minimum. In the 60 others, “the public should rest assured that we will aggressively pursue life without possibility of parole,” she said.

The 2012 decision was based on two cases — Montgomery v. Louisiana and Miller v. Alabama.
Montgomery emphasized that life sentences should be rare, and Miller barred life without parole “for all but the rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.”

The court also shifted the focus in these cases to a defendant’s post-crime conduct.

“Those prisoners who have shown an inability to reform will continue to serve life sentences,” the court said. “The opportunity for release will be afforded to those who demonstrate the truth of Miller's central intuition — that children who commit even heinous crimes are capable of change.”

The Michigan Legislature enacted MCL 769.25a, which provides that in the event Miller was held fully retroactive, prosecutors in Michigan would have 180 days to decide whether to seek life-without-parole sentences. If the prosecutor chooses not to seek life without parole, the defendant would receive a term of years sentence with a minimum between 25 years and 40 years, and a maximum of 60 years.

Montgomery triggered the application of MCL 769.25a in 145 cases prosecuted by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. There were 144 defendants prosecuted by WCPO, however, one had two murder cases bringing the cases to 145. There were a total of 147 cases; however, one defendant died, and one defendant was prosecuted by the Michigan attorney general.

With 145 cases, Wayne County has the largest number of cases for possible resentencing in Michigan, followed by Oakland County with 49, Genesee county with 26, Kent County with 24 and Macomb county with 12.

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