LANSING, MI - A landmark ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court paves the way for nearly 600 people who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole as juveniles to be resentenced.
According to CBS News, in a 5-2 ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court found that people who committed murder between the ages of 19 and 20 should be resentenced, rather than serve life in prison without parole. Out of the 600 people convicted, 285 are in Wayne County.
The decision by the Michigan Supreme Court has prosecutor offices across the state concerned about the possible strain this will cause on prosecutors. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement, "The MSC gave us six months to review over 400 Wayne County cases. Justice cannot be fair with this timeline. We intend to be thoughtful in evaluating these cases.
We must review trial transcripts, MDCO records, medical and psychological records of each of the defendants, review the documents from each of the defense lawyers and find and contact each and every one of the affected families to inform them of this decision. As has been the case with the MSC for years now, they do not seem to care about the plight of victims and the survivor families.
These are all first-degree murder cases where these defendants were lawfully convicted. And we intent to be thoughtful and fair to each of these defendants. The WCPO is going to need a substantial amount of extra resources to be able to follow the dictates of the C\court and do the right thing. And the timeline is untenable."
Maya Menlo, assistant youth defender with the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO) said, "Yes, there will be court resources spent on resentencing these individuals, but the savings and the potential to avoid needless, inhumane incarceration is massive."
The Michigan Supreme Court made a similar decision for 18-year-olds. Menlo said, "We need to zoom out and look at the system as a whole, not just the court system, but also the Michigan Department of Corrections."
The ruling calling the original law a "violation" of Michigan's constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The judges said that regardless of the date of the offense, those cases should be reexamined because of the fact that the defendants' brains were not fully developed at the time.
Research shows that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 and people like Jose Burgos, who was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when he was 16-years-old, says he knows the consequences of that firsthand.
He said, "As a juvenile lifer, as a child who went to prison, was given a life without parole sentence, I knew that the only way we were going to change that is that somebody who experienced that was going to have to come out here and explain to the people, explain to the state of Michigan, explain to this country, how horrible it is to sentence children to life without parole."
After serving 27 years, Burgos' sentence was reduced and he was released in 2018. Menlo said that the decision by the Michigan Supreme Court does not minimize the crimes committed or the victims impacted, but instead ensures that defendants are given fair sentences.
Menlo said, "Victims are not a monolith and it is a disservice to victims to say that all of them oppose resentencing and all of them want life without the possibility of parole because we know that is simply not true." SADO found that the oldest inmate up for resentencing in Wayne County is 80-years-old, and all those eligible have served a combined total of close to 8,000 years in prison.
According to CBS News, in a 5-2 ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court found that people who committed murder between the ages of 19 and 20 should be resentenced, rather than serve life in prison without parole. Out of the 600 people convicted, 285 are in Wayne County.
The decision by the Michigan Supreme Court has prosecutor offices across the state concerned about the possible strain this will cause on prosecutors. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement, "The MSC gave us six months to review over 400 Wayne County cases. Justice cannot be fair with this timeline. We intend to be thoughtful in evaluating these cases.
We must review trial transcripts, MDCO records, medical and psychological records of each of the defendants, review the documents from each of the defense lawyers and find and contact each and every one of the affected families to inform them of this decision. As has been the case with the MSC for years now, they do not seem to care about the plight of victims and the survivor families.
These are all first-degree murder cases where these defendants were lawfully convicted. And we intent to be thoughtful and fair to each of these defendants. The WCPO is going to need a substantial amount of extra resources to be able to follow the dictates of the C\court and do the right thing. And the timeline is untenable."
Maya Menlo, assistant youth defender with the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO) said, "Yes, there will be court resources spent on resentencing these individuals, but the savings and the potential to avoid needless, inhumane incarceration is massive."
The Michigan Supreme Court made a similar decision for 18-year-olds. Menlo said, "We need to zoom out and look at the system as a whole, not just the court system, but also the Michigan Department of Corrections."
The ruling calling the original law a "violation" of Michigan's constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The judges said that regardless of the date of the offense, those cases should be reexamined because of the fact that the defendants' brains were not fully developed at the time.
Research shows that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 and people like Jose Burgos, who was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when he was 16-years-old, says he knows the consequences of that firsthand.
He said, "As a juvenile lifer, as a child who went to prison, was given a life without parole sentence, I knew that the only way we were going to change that is that somebody who experienced that was going to have to come out here and explain to the people, explain to the state of Michigan, explain to this country, how horrible it is to sentence children to life without parole."
After serving 27 years, Burgos' sentence was reduced and he was released in 2018. Menlo said that the decision by the Michigan Supreme Court does not minimize the crimes committed or the victims impacted, but instead ensures that defendants are given fair sentences.
Menlo said, "Victims are not a monolith and it is a disservice to victims to say that all of them oppose resentencing and all of them want life without the possibility of parole because we know that is simply not true." SADO found that the oldest inmate up for resentencing in Wayne County is 80-years-old, and all those eligible have served a combined total of close to 8,000 years in prison.
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Comments
2025-05-09T18:19-0400 | Comment by: arthur
Not trying to lesson the crimes that these people did, but they were kids at the time, and also it seems to me that there might have been something wrong with the system here as well. Also, since some of these people that were sentenced at these young ages are now pretty old, and have been locked up for a pretty good while, and have had some serious time to reflect on what they did and the consequences of those actions, maybe it's time to show a bit of mercy on some of them. That being said, I wouldn't just toss them out on the street, either. They would need to have some form of ability to fend for them selves once they were let out again, have a place to stay, and make a living, or they might wind up back inside again. I'm sure there are ways of helping these people to learn how to become useful to themselves again, if the system was willing to do so...it was willing to lock them up, now it should be willing to help restore them to a society that has changed a lot since they were last in it....
2025-05-09T23:36-0400 | Comment by: Dawn
So... 18-20 year olds shouldn't be held accountable for their choice to commit MURDER because their brains aren't fully developed, but children who haven't even reached puberty yet can make decisions to be chemically and surgically castrate AND children under 18 can make the potentially life-destroying choice to go through abortion without parental consent? Are these idiots for real? 18 year olds are ADULTS, not juveniles. If they commit violent crimes, they should do ADULT time. Period.
2025-05-10T17:08-0400 | Comment by: Michelle
Despite the fact their brains aren’t fully developed until 25, they still know the difference between right and wrong. If you look back in time, there were less juveniles killing people then over the numbers who are committing violent crimes including murder now. So apparently kids have gotten dumber is the argument? I would say that society has gotten dumber by allowing kids to be violent and not face consequences. This stupidity does nothing but encourage more violence from kids because they know they won’t have to suffer consequences, it emboldens adults to get kids to commit the crimes knowing they would be put in prison for life but the kids won’t, and it’s going to ignore the impact on the victims who suffer with loss for the rest of their lives. If you take a life you forfeit your own.