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Teens Sentenced to Life: Cruel and Unusual?

High court will address sentences for kid convicts who didn't kill

By the Associated Press

Posted Nov 8, 2009 11:05 AM CST

(AP) – Joe Sullivan was sent away for life for raping an elderly woman and judged incorrigible though he was only 13. Terrance Graham, implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17, was given a life sentence by a judge who told the teenager he had thrown his life away. The teenagers didn't kill anyone, but effectively were sentenced to die in prison—a rare sentence whose constitutionality the Supreme Court will review tomorrow.

Just over 100 inmates are serving life sentences for crimes less serious than killing, according to data compiled by opponents of the sentences. Graham, now 22, and Sullivan, now 33, are in Florida prisons, which hold more than 70% of applicable juvenile defendants. Beyond the infrequency of such punishment, lawyers for Graham and Sullivan argue that it is a bad idea to render a final judgment about people so young. "They are unfinished products, works-in-progress," says Sullivan's lawyer.

[Images (4)]

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Terrance Graham was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17, and given a life sentence without parole by a judge who told him he threw his life away. Graham, now 22, is jailed in Florida. (Graham Family)

Joe Sullivan, 31, raped an elderly woman when he was 13, was judged incorrigible, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Glen Paul)

This May 4, 2007, file photo shows former Sen. Alan Simpson, who served 18 years in the Senate, but as a teenager pleaded guilty to setting fire to an abandoned building on federal property. (Ed Andrieski)

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When they been in the clink for 20 years and learned how to read and do things, why not (release them)? That's better than saying 'Sorry, we can't look at that file because you were sent here for life.' - Former Sen. Alan Simpson, who pleaded guilty to a crime as a teen

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Teens Sentenced to Life: Cruel and Unusual?