Prof. Feld Quoted in Star Tribune on Sentencing Juveniles

Professor Barry Feld was quoted extensively in a Star Tribune article on the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions on sentencing juveniles. The Court prohibited states from imposing a mandatory life without parole sentence on juveniles convicted of Murder 1. The issue arose in the context of a retrial of a 17-year-old girl convicted of Murder 1 for infanticide. Because Minnesota criminal law provides only for a mandatory sentence, Feld predicted that the legislature would have to revise the Murder 1 sentencing provisions to allow judges to conduct an individualized assessment of a juvenile's reduced culpability and to consider youthfulness as a mitigating factor in sentencing.