Teen Killer Must Get Chance At Parole Before Dying In Prison: N.J. Appellate Court

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Does a 17-year-old murderer deserve a guarantee that he or she will get a chance for parole before they die in jail?

That was the legal concept behind a New Jersey state appellate court’s ruling on Friday, which held that an Essex County teen convicted of fatally shooting a Newark grocery store clerk on Christmas Eve in 2010 must be issued a new sentence that doesn’t equal “life without parole.”

According to the court’s unpublished decision, Jaworski Sneed of East Orange was 17-years-old when he took part in a shooting on Osborne Terrance and Shephard Avenue in Newark. During his trial, prosecutors argued that 47-year-old Darryl Logan was shot while trying to break up a fight outside the store involving Sneed and several other men, and was killed in his attempt to be a “peacemaker” on Christmas Eve.

After the shooting, Sneed and the other men ran away, leaving Logan lying on the ground dying as Logan’s daughter watched from a nearby first-floor apartment, prosecutors alleged.

A judge sentenced Sneed to life imprisonment in 2013 and ordered that Sneed not be eligible for parole for almost 64 years. However, in their appeal, Sneed’s attorneys argued that since he committed the fatal shooting as a juvenile, such a sentence would amount to “cruel and unusual punishment.”

On Aug. 5, an appellate panel of judges agreed with Sneed's attorneys and ordered that the case be remanded for resentencing.

“In order to avoid constitutional infirmity, the court's goal must be to insure defendant receives a meaningful and realistic opportunity for release during the life expectancy of a person of defendant's age living in the United States,” the appellate panel wrote.

“We intimate no view as to the appropriate sentence that should be imposed on remand. However, based on defendant's age when he committed his crime, the trial court must insure that his sentence does not amount to a life sentence without parole, even if a period of parole ineligibility is imposed.”

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