Posted on 05/27/2016 11:13:19 AM PDT by C19fan
A divided Iowa Supreme Court on Friday banned judges from imposing life prison sentences without the possibility of parole on juveniles convicted of first-degree murder.
The court ruled 4-3 that the sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under the Iowa Constitution. Even juveniles who commit the most heinous crimes should someday have the option of proving to the Iowa Board of Parole that they have been rehabilitated and are fit for release, Justice Brent Appel wrote for the majority.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The article is written wrong. Iowa supreme court can’t ban anything. It’s sandwiched between the Iowa Doj, Iowa legislature.
More obamatron thinking.
Lemme guess which race will be deemed ‘worthy’ of another chance at life...
These people are insane. Then it does accomplish a goal...redistribution. Put the criminals on the streets lower everyone way of life.
Wrong ruling.
So just sentence them to 100 years and don’t call it life...
Did they figure out how to keep juveniles from killing people?
Can you recall judges in Iowa?
Sounds like this ruling would qualify for a reason to put it in front of the voters.
I seem to remember that a liberal judge, coddling criminals, was indeed recalled by the voters in California a few years ago.
First, leftists claim that the death penalty is “cruel and unusual” and ban it, saying we can give life sentences. Now, this.
I miss the rule of law. We wrote the Constitution in which the legislature writes the laws and the executive carries out the laws. The Supreme Court has no business complaining that the laws as written are harsh on murderers. There is nothing cruel about life without parole. It should be common for juvenile thugs who pose a danger to society, so that it could not be called unusual.
Or, for multiple crimes, 4 consecutive 25-year sentences.
You mean, killing people isn’t (yet) a “constitutional right?”
Give them time.
Well one way to keep them in is if they attacked a guard (supposedly) or disobeyed rules (supposedly) so that more years could be added to their sentence.
In that case Iowa should go to Short Life sentences.
It’s Iowa. Bwahaha!
These Iowans are in a race to outdo folk from Massachusetts.
There’s a common thread between these two states if you can figure that out.
We should ask the victims of these perps if it is cruel and unusual punishment...Ooops, guess we can't do that, can we?
Can you recall judges in Iowa?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704635704575604653707714196
“If judges want to avoid recalls, they should leave social legislation to legislators”
Michael Swanson, the teen who murdered two clerks at two different stores in Iowa in cold blood after they gave him the money he demanded, will at least remain in prison for 60 years before being eligible for parole. He also tried to kill another inmate while incarcerated, so that should get him a few more decades.
He’s the one who laughed and displayed a broad smile throughout his arrest and trial as the details of the murders were being recounted.
Don’t give them LWOP, give them several hundred years. That way they’re not given a life sentence per se ....
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