Children’s rights group aid juveniles serving life sentences
29th October 2018 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Propelled by the belief that young people can turn their lives around and redeem themselves for past crimes, the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights (LACCR) earlier this month contracted with the state to provide advocacy for men and women who were sentenced to life without parole as juveniles.
Under the $1 million contract, the LACCR will work with the Louisiana Public Defender Board (LPDB) to represent the dozens of such inmates – dubbed juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) cases – who are waiting for a chance to be resentenced to less harsh terms of incarceration that allow them to be released and not die in prison.
The movement to drastically reduce the amount of JLWOP cases across the country and in Louisiana in particular picked up steam in 2016, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such harsh sentences for 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds were unconstitutional in all but the rarest of cases.
For public defenders and children’s justice advocates, rehabilitation can be encouraged and undertaken when people who made mistakes as teens are given a chance at eventual freedom.
“Our criminal justice system tends to define people by the worst thing they’ve ever done – and punishes them accordingly,” LACCR Executive Director Aaron Clark-Rizzio told The Louisiana Weekly. “But people, and especially children, can and do change for the better. If prosecutors recognize that, as the Supreme Court has, we can move toward a more rehabilitative approach.”
According to previous media reports, roughly 300 inmates in Louisiana were potentially affected by the 2016 court ruling. A state law adopted in the wake of the court’s decision offered about 200 of those inmates new sentences that offered the possibility of parole. (All of those 200 had been convicted of murders committed under age 18.)
However, the recently adopted state law provided prosecutors with a potentially severe loophole – district attorneys can file objections to JLWOP inmates’ request for resentencing. According to the LACCR, prosecutors across the state have taken advantage of that option, actions that have stalled the progress toward the resentencing of dozens of prisoners.
The LACCR states that about 100 inmates – one-third of the 300 cases impacted by the 2016 court ruling – are as result facing challenges to their hopes for release from prison. About 80 of them are facing resentencing, while the rest are enduring pre-trial or pre-sentencing processes.
Clark-Rizzio said those numbers reflect how powerful district attorneys are on a state level, and how easily state legislators’ actions can be bent to favor prosecutors, to the detriment of inmates who might have been rehabilitated and possibly deserving of a second chance at life.
“Prosecutors are highly influential at the state legislature, which has allowed them to continue seeking juvenile life without parole,” Clark-Rizzio told The Louisiana Weekly. “It’s a good reminder why we need to hold all of our elected officials – legislators and district attorneys alike – accountable to what our communities want.”
Under the new state law, the resentencing process provides JLWOP convicts with a chance to prove they have taken substantial steps toward rehabilitation and redemption, such as complete educational programs in prison, religious or spiritual reflection, psychological counseling, and work-training programs. Such efforts, advocates say, can help reduce recidivism, keep parolees from committing further crimes and provide former inmates with the tools needed to becoming productive, thriving members of the community.
In addition, under the new state law, JLWOP convicts and their defenders also can address other “aggravating and mitigating evidence” relevant to the sentencing, such as criminal history, the offender’s upbringing and expert testimony.
Returning to the LACCR to spearhead the resentencing efforts is veteran litigator Carol Kolinchak, who previously headed the organizations’ similar, previous JLWOP work from 2008-15.
The LACCR’s fight against Louisiana prosecutors moves to block possible resentencing for JLWOP inmates goes back into last year; in November 2017, the organization issued a press release re-asserting the LACCR’s belief in second chances.
“Every person sentenced as a child should have an opportunity for parole review as an adult,” LACCR Supervising Attorney Jill Pasquarella said in the release. “While resentencing hearings are impractical and prohibitively expensive, the parole board is uniquely able to determine if someone is truly rehabilitated or not.”
Louisiana prosecutors’ frequent objections to resentencing, including filing motions to block or delay inmates’ petitions, has drawn national attention in the wake of the 2016 SCOTUS ruling. Several national media outlets, such as Slate, which in May 2017 lamented the fact that “Louisiana has lagged behind red states like Texas, Mississippi, and Utah” in addressing JLWOP resentencing.
“Alas,” Slate added, “that potential [for sentencing reform] will apparently remain unrealized. In Louisiana, it’s clear that juvenile life without parole is not being used in the rare manner the Supreme Court has called for.”
The Web site criticized the Louisiana District Attorneys Association’s resistance to the move toward resentencing.
“Today in Louisiana,” Slate asserted. “The LDAA’s anti-reform position is increasingly a lonely one. Elected prosecutors’ constituents, state business leaders, and even conservatives in the Louisiana Legislature support ending juvenile life without parole.”
Louisiana prosecutors have defended their caution in implementing resentencing in the state by asserting that the Supreme Court, in its 2016 ruling, didn’t adequately specify the conditions for extreme JLWOP cases, often dubbed “the worst of the worst.” Essentially, the individual JLWOP cases boil down to one basic question – who is deserving of a second chance, and who isn’t?
“Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court will say what’s acceptable and what’s not,” LDAA Executive Director Pete Adams told Nola.com. “If the U.S. Supreme Court says no one can get life without parole or who can’t get it, we will abide by that.”
In the same Nola.com article, Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro – whose office has come under scrutiny for its perceived recalcitrance in complying to the court ruling – echoed Adams’ feelings, saying prosecutors are unfairly being given the burden of deciding which JLWOP cases need to be re-assessed.
“We are trying to make the best decision that we can without really seeing this person,” he said. “I think it puts an unfair burden on the district attorneys.”
However, Cannizzaro also acknowledged that rehabilitation also plays an important part in such cases.
“I do recognize, that over the course of time, that a person might change,” he said.
In October 2017, the Louisiana Supreme Court provided what could be legal support for the JLWOP resentencing effort by specifically declaring such sentences unconstitutional in Louisiana, while also eliminating further restrictions to parole eligibility in the case of an inmate named Thayer Green, whose hopes for resentencing had been hampered by previous “crimes of violence” convictions such as home invasion and simple robbery.
“Ultimately, this case was a landmark Eighth Amendment case,” wrote American Legislative Exchange Council reporter Ronald J. Lampard following the October 2017 state ruling. “Along with the ‘Raise the Age’ bill [that bans the trying of 17-year-olds as adults], Louisiana will almost certainly see a drop in the number of those under the age of 18 being sentenced to life in prison…“In addition, the court strongly stated that even a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole may be unconstitutionally excessive under the totality of the circumstances of the case.”
Returning to the LACCR’s new state contract, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards originally earmarked $1.3 million to study and work toward resentencing for JLWOP cases; in addition to the $1-million contract with the LACCR, the remaining $300,000 is being reserved for a fund to provide expert witnesses or alternate counsel in case of a conflict with LACCR.
However, LACCR representatives say that even with such funding buoying defenders’ efforts, more advocacy is needed to address the complex, often painstaking process of dealing with JLWOP prisoners.
“With the new state contract, we can provide the expertise these cases require and do so in a more cost-effective way,” Clark-Rizzio told The Louisiana Weekly. “However, the funds are not close to the amount that will be needed to resolve all of the cases. Louisiana will continue to have trouble complying with the law unless the legislature either spends a great deal of money or simply allows the parole board to do its job.”
This article originally published in the October 22, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
