Miller v. Alabama: Implications for North Carolina

My previous post summarized Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court’s recent case holding that a sentencing regime in which life without parole (LWOP) is mandatory for a murder committed by a defendant under age 18 violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. This post picks up where the previous one left off, discussing some of the legal and practical implications of the ruling in North Carolina. Without question, Miller matters in North Carolina. Life without parole is the only statutorily permissible sentence for anyone convicted of first-degree murder who was under age 18 at the time of the crime. G.S. 14-17. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are, of course, always considered adults under our law, and children 13 years old or older are mandatorily transferred to adult court when alleged to have committed first-degree murder. G.S. 7B-2200. According to some of the advocacy outlets that track these things, 44 North Carolina inmates are serving life without parole for crimes committed before they turned 18 (DAC has now provided a list showing 88 such inmates). A recent high-profile defendant is illustrative: Laurence Lovette was mandatorily sentenced to life without parole for the murder of Eve Carson, a crime committed when he was 17. He is also charged with the killing of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato. Undoubtedly other young defendants have murder charges pending in the trial division. More about each of those classes of inmates and defendants in a moment. Miller is only an issue for life sentences imposed under Structured [...]