No New Hearings For Michigan Juvenile Lifers

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan's Supreme Court says more than 350 inmates serving no-parole sentences for murder committed when they were teenagers won't get new hearings that could have led to their release.

The court's decision Tuesday is a defeat for prisoners who had hoped to benefit from a landmark 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case.

The U.S. Supreme Court said juveniles should not automatically be hit with the same mandatory punishment given to adults. But since then, states have struggled over whether to apply the ruling retroactively to thousands of convicts sent to prison years ago.

The Michigan court said there will be no retroactive treatment in this state.

Attorney General Bill Schuette had argued that families of victims should not be forced to return to court for yet another look at tragic events.
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