Supreme Court hears case on life sentences for teens
Three years ago the Supreme Court said juveniles convicted of murder should not receive mandatory sentences of life without parole.
On Tuesday, the justices heard arguments about whether to extend that ruling to include more than 1,300 people serving life sentences they received as teens before the court decided to ban such punishments.
The case centers on Henry Montgomery, a Louisiana man who was sentenced to life in prison forty years ago, when he was just 17. He has spent the last 52 years in prison for killing a sheriff's deputy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1963.
Montgomery sought to get his sentenced reduced after the court's 2012 decision, but Louisiana is one of the states that did not apply the court's decision retroactively. Lawyers arguing against expanding this relief told the justices that changing sentences decades after a crime is impractical and unfair to victims.
The Court's decision is expected in June and could mean the difference between freedom or dying behind bars.