Michigan`s Senate Judiciary Committee is on the verge of approving legislation that would abolish life sentences without parole for juveniles. On December 4 Michigan`s 110 - seat house passed the bills by margins ranging from 12 to 61 votes. Michigan joins California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and the federal government in its attempt to lower the number of inmates sentenced for life as juveniles.

Michigan, in particular, „has 321 young offenders sentenced to die in prison,” said Alison Parker, deputy director of the US Program of Human Rights Watch. The only states with more lifers sentenced as juveniles are Pennsylvania and Louisiana. There are no juveniles serving life sentences without parole in the rest of the world. All countries except for the US and Somalia have ratified international treaties condemning „life imprisonment without possibility of release” for “offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age.”

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released a report saying that more than 2000 inmates are in U.S. jails for life sentenced when under the age of 18, some sentenced at ages as young as 15. A separate report released by the American Civil Liberties Union last year noted that under current state law, life without parole is a mandatory sentence for a juvenile convicted of first degree murder in an adult court.

The new bill crafted by State Senator Liz Brater would nullify a 1997 bill according to which juveniles can be tried as adults for heinous crimes. Additionally the new law would allow re-examination of prisoners sentenced for life and would rescind a judges`s ability to sentence juveniles to life without parole.

In the eyes of Mis Brater the issue is however very controversial. She knows she will have to work with “all the stakeholders” to come up with a bill that could garner bipartisan support. While her proposal has not yet encountered loud resistance, some state officials hesitate to rush into reform. Senator Cropsey for example pointed out the case of John Rodney McRea of St. Claire Shores. Mc Rae was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 15, because of good behavior he was released after 22 years. Recently the police are investigating him in connections with the disappearance of two boys. “(This) would never have happened if he had not been let out of prison,” Cropsey said. “That’s why we need to say, ‘OK, who are we talking about here to be letting out?“

Reform supporters, like Shelli Weisburg, legislative director of the Michigan chapter of the ACLU, say that „this is really a juvenile justice issue that is long overdue.” Nationally, juvenile justice laws are undergoing major change, with many states overturning tough legislation passed in the 1990`s.
Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Committee that the practice is „cruel, inappropriate, discriminatory, and a violation of human rights.“ In its letter Human Rights Watch also noted that both brain science research and the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Roper v Simmons recognize the possibility of moral changing even after committing a heinous crime. Moreover, in Roper v Simmons the Supreme Court ruled that juvenile executions violated the 8th Amendment, Justice Anthony Kennedey for the majority said, „retribution is not proportional if the law’s most severe penalty is imposed on one whose culpability or blameworthiness is diminished, to a substantial degree, by reason of youth and immaturity.”

This is similar to what Tom Croxton, psychology emeritus professor, says about juvenile justice. According to him moral development comes on in people much later than normally thought of. Therefore it would make no sense to punish someone morally not yet fully developed.
The Human Rights Watch letter also highlights that many of the youth condemned in Michigan did not physically commit the crime. They were sentenced to life without parole for aiding or abetting or for an unplanned killing in the course of a felony.

Human Rights Watch also points out the racial disparities in sentencing. In Michigan, black youth are serving life without parole at a per capita rate 10 times higher than that of white youth.

Two UN oversight and enforcement bodies, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, have found that the practice of sentencing juveniles to life without parole violates US human rights treaty obligations.