Liz Shepard, Port Huron Times Herald
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that juvenile offenders who have been sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole must be resentenced.
The ruling brings Michigan in line with a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The state ruling came in the case of Raymond Carp, who was 15 in 2006 when he helped his older brother kill Maryann McNeely of Casco Township.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that its earlier decision that mandatory life in prison for juvenile offenders is cruel and unusual punishment must be applied retroactively. The ruling does not mean youth offenders can’t be sentenced to life without parole, instead, the mandatory life sentence can’t be automatic.
The ruling impacts at least four Michigan cases: Carp, Tia Skinner, Michael Hills and Jimmy Porter.
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