Miller v. Alabama
United States Supreme Court
567 U.S. 460 (2012)
Two 14-year-old defendants, Kuntrell Jackson and Evan Miller, were each convicted as adults of murder-related offenses under state laws mandating life without parole for their crimes; Jackson participated in an armed robbery during which another boy shot the clerk, without himself pulling the trigger, while Miller killed his neighbor during a fire he set after being severely abused and neglected as a child. In each case, the mandatory sentencing scheme prevented the sentencing judge from considering the defendant's age, background, or degree of personal culpability before imposing the mandatory life-without-parole sentence.
Whether a mandatory punishment of life without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time the crime is committed violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.