Michigan prosecutors are continuing their resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the issue of juvenile life sentences without parole.
The Supreme Court already ruled that denying parole to juvenile lifers is unconstitutional, except in the rarest of cases.
The ACLU is suing Michigan over the state's vague standards for denying parole to juvenile lifers.
Daniel Korobkin, the Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU of Michigan, says the state is being stubborn in terms of following the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Michigan is plowing full straight ahead and is trying to impose life without parole on a majority of children, children for whom that sentence is absolutely unconstitutional,” Korobkin says.
Korobkin says he hopes federal judges will decide to give children who commit crimes more appropriate sentences because the state’s prosecutors aren’t.
“Courts in our society are the last bastion of making sure the constitution is respected,” he says.
Michigan is one of seven states that still sentences juveniles to life without parole.
