The Michigan Supreme Court will hear cases in January that could decide whether more younger defendants convicted of murder will have an opportunity to have their mandatory sentences of life with no chance of parole reconsidered by a judge.
In 2022, the state Supreme Court decided that automatic life-without-parole sentences for 18-year-olds violate the Michigan Constitution. Courts already ruled that defendants 17-years-old and younger convicted of murder could not be sentenced to life without hearings to take into account their youth, mental state and other individual circumstances.
In one of the cases, the defense argues that defendants who were 18 years old when they committed the crime and have exhausted their appeals should still be allowed to have their sentences reviewed. The court will decide whether that decision should apply retroactively to the roughly 250 defendants who were 18 years old when they committed the crimes and whose cases “have become final after the expiration of the period for direct review.”
In the same session, the court will also hear arguments in related cases on whether defendants who were convicted of first-degree murder or felony murder for crimes committed when they were 19 or 20 years old should also be allowed to have their life sentences reconsidered.
