Howard

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A. Legal Background The criminal justice system has evolved in the last decade with respect to its punishment of youth offenders. In Graham v. Florida (2010) 560 U.S. 48, 82 (Graham), the Supreme Court found the imposition of a life sentence without parole on a nonhomicide juvenile offender violated the Eighth Amendment. Such a sentence “is not appropriate in light of a juvenile nonhomicide offender’s capacity for change and limited moral culpability.” (Id. at p. 74.) Two years later, the Supreme Court expanded upon Graham. If found unconstitutional a mandatory life sentence without parole that was imposed on a juvenile after a homicide conviction. (Miller v. Alabama (2012) 567 U.S. 460, 465 (Miller).) Among other things, the Court explained “children are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of sentencing. Because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform . . ., ‘they are less deserving of the most severe punishments.’” (Id. at p. 471.) A few months after Miller, our state Supreme Court found a juvenile defendant’s 110-year sentence before any chance of parole “amount[ed] to the functional equivalent of a…