Equal Justice Initiative

Bryan Stevenson argued at the Iowa Supreme Court today in Veal v. State that sentencing a 14-year-old child to life imprisonment without possibility of parole violates state and federal constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.

Today EJI argues at the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Petitioner Joe Sullivan in Sullivan v. Florida, which challenges the imposition of life-without-parole sentences on young adolescents.

Over a dozen national and international organizations representing teachers, scientists, adolescent development experts, physicians, and corrections professionals have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida, which challenge sentences to life imprisonment without parole imposed on children.

A national study found that more prisoners today are serving life sentences across the country than ever before. Alabama ranks among the top three states for number of life sentences imposed and is the national leader in racially disproportionate sentencing of children to life in prison.

The United States Supreme Court today decided that it will review the case of Joe Sullivan, who was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in Florida for an offense at age 13 that did not involve a killing.

On April 30, 2009, a California appeal court struck down a life imprisonment without parole sentence imposed on Antonio Nunez, a 14-year-old child convicted of aggravated kidnapping. The court declared the sentence to be cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment and the California Constitution.

Photo by Steve Liss

The Equal Justice Initiative recently filed challenges in several states to sentences to life imprisonment without possibility of parole imposed on children for offenses at age thirteen or fourteen. In spite of a major loss of funding, EJI lawyers have filed cases in Mississippi, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Delaware in the past several weeks.

Kenneth Frazier (left) won the release of James "Bo" Cochran, who spent 19 years on Alabama's death row for a crime he did not commit.

Photo by Steve Liss

In oral argument at the Delaware Supreme Court in Dover on February 4, 2009, EJI's Bryan Stevenson argued that the court should strike down as unconstitutional life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on fourteen-year-old children. EJI represents Donald Torres, who was sentenced to die in prison in Delaware for an offense that occurred when he was just fourteen years old.

The United States Supreme Court has asked the State of Florida to respond to EJI's petition in the case of Joe Sullivan, who was convicted for a sexual assault at age 13 and sentenced to die in prison.