State of Louisiana, Respondent
S. Kyle Duncan, Counsel of Record
Louisiana was one of the handful of States that had crimes that carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole even if the offender was a minor at the time of his or her conviction. On June 25, 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such automatic sentences for those under the age of 18 were “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Following the Court’s decision, Henry Montgomery — a Louisiana inmate who had received such a sentence for a murder he committed as a 17-year-old in…
