Next week, EJI Director Bryan Stevenson will argue in the California Court of Appeal on behalf of Antonio Nunez [1], who was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility for parole for his involvement at age fourteen in a kidnapping offense in which no one was injured.
In April 2007, EJI filed a petition in the California Supreme Court to challenge Antonio's sentence as cruel and unusual punishment. The California Supreme Court decided that Antonio's case should move forward and assigned the case to the California Court of Appeal for further briefing and oral argument.
Antonio Nunez is the only person in the world known to be sentenced to die in prison for an offense at age fourteen where no one was injured. Under California law, Antonio could not have been sentenced to death in prison if he had committed an aggravated murder.
Mr. Stevenson will argue that Antonio's sentence to die in prison does not fit the crime where no one was hurt, particularly because Antonio was only fourteen at the time.