Thursday, November 3, 2022
4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Joukowsky Forum, 111 Thayer Street
Reception to follow.
What constitutes a de facto “life” sentence? This is the question courts throughout the country continue to try to answer in response to several Supreme Court rulings. The Supreme Court decision, Graham v. Florida began the formal legal departure from sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Montgomery v. Louisiana determined that the decision applied retroactively, giving 2,000 inmates serving life without parole sentences the opportunity for resentencing. The current work uses formal demography to address one of the key challenges in resentencing by determining what constitutes a de facto life sentence since any sentence that exceeds the life expectancy of an individual violates the terms of Graham.