Alabama, Respondent
John C. Neiman, Jr., Counsel of Record
The maximum punishment for capital murder in the State of Alabama is death, while the mandatory minimum is life in prison with no possibility of parole. When 14-year-old Evan Miller was convicted of the arson murder of his neighbor, Cole Cannon, in 2003, he was sentenced by an Alabama State trial court to life without parole because the Supreme Court had ruled that the death penalty for juveniles was unconstitutional. Miller appealed the decision in State court, contending that mandatory life without parole for juveniles was also a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. After…
