People v. Sanders CA2/5

DISCUSSION

A. Legal Backdrop

1. Eighth Amendment Precedent

In Graham v. Florida (2010) 560 U.S. 48, 74–75 (Graham), the United States Supreme Court held that it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a non-homicide juvenile offender to LWOP. The Graham court explained that “developments in psychology and brain science continue to show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds. . . . [P]arts of the brain involved in behavior control continue to mature through late adolescence. [Citations.] Juveniles are more capable of change than are adults, and their actions are less likely to be evidence of ‘irretrievably depraved character’ than are the actions of adults. [Citation.] It remains true that ‘[f]rom a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor’s character

3 deficiencies will be reformed.’ [Citation.]” (Id. at p. 68.) Graham held that “[a] State is not required to guarantee eventual freedom to a juvenile offender convicted of a non[-]homicide crime. What the State must do, however, is give defendants like…