A bill to bring Arkansas in line with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions barring life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders passed through a Senate committee Wednesday.
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.arkansas…">Bid to require voter IDs moves on to full House http://www.arkansas…">Senate adds age, training to campus guns bill http://www.arkansas…">Governor signs agency changes http://www.arkansas…">Senate panel goes for notifications by online sellers http://www.arkansas…">Panel OKs boost in grocers' wine options http://www.arkansas…">State Capitol briefs
A proposal to remove life without parole sentences for minors from Arkansas' statutes failed in 2015. Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, revived her efforts in Senate Bill 294, which moves to the upper chamber with the Senate Judiciary Committee's endorsement.
Also called the the Fair Sentencing of Minors Act, Irvin's bill would allow people sentenced when minors to life for murder to be eligible for parole after 20 or 30 years, depending on their level of culpability.
The proposed law would not allow good behavior to lower the parole threshold, and Irvin called the law a "balance" maintaining lengthy sentences on behalf of victims.
In a pair of cases -- one of which was an appeal by an Arkansan convicted of murder at 14 -- the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 ruled unconstitutional mandatory life sentences without parole for minors.
Last year, the high court ruled that its 2012 decision applied retroactively. Still, there are more than 100 inmates serving life sentences in the Arkansas Department of Correction for crimes they committed before their 18th birthday, Little Rock attorney Jeff Rosenzweig told the committee.
Irvin's bill would apply retroactively, so that prosecutors would not have to evaluate each sentence invalidated by the court in order to determine a new parole date. Instead, inmates affected by the Supreme Court decisions would be eligible for parole based on the new guidelines.
Testifying before the committee Wednesday were Linda White of Texas, the mother of a murder victim who advocated for "restorative justice," and a former Chicago gang member imprisoned for murder at 13. Both said young people have a greater ability to be rehabilitated if they are given second chances.
"On paper I looked like a monster," said Xavier McElrath-Bey, who was released from prison at 26 and now serves as an adviser for the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth in Washington, D.C.
The House sponsor of the bill, Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, opposed Irvin's legislation in 2015.
But Petty, whose 12-year-old daughter was murdered in 1999, said she decided to join onto the current legislation after meeting with White, who testified about her own journey toward advocacy following her daughter's murder.
"I understood exactly where she was coming from," Petty said.
No one spoke against the legislation.
A Section on 02/23/2017