{"id":2694,"date":"2022-02-17T14:34:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T19:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/?page_id=2694"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:15:18","slug":"bipartisan-group-of-63-current-and-former-prosecutors-justice-department-officials-and-judges-call-on-attorney-general-garland-to-scale-back-juvenile-life-without-parole-create-new-committee-to-rev","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/our-press-releases\/bipartisan-group-of-63-current-and-former-prosecutors-justice-department-officials-and-judges-call-on-attorney-general-garland-to-scale-back-juvenile-life-without-parole-create-new-committee-to-rev\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Group of 63 Current and Former Prosecutors, Justice Department Officials, and Judges Call on Attorney General Garland to Scale Back Juvenile Life Without Parole, Create New Committee to Review Potential Juvenile Life Sentences"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 17, 2022<\/p>\n

Contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex Aronson, Managing Director, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, aa2595@georgetown.edu<\/span>(This link opens in a new tab)<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Washington, D.C. <\/strong>– Today, a bipartisan group of 67 current and former prosecutors, Justice Department officials, and judges wrote to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, urging him to limit the Department\u2019s pursuit of life sentences for juvenile offenders. The signatories argue that in most cases, the Department should seek lesser sentences for juveniles. The letter<\/a>, organized by the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection<\/a> (ICAP) at Georgetown Law, also urges Garland to create a committee to review all federal prosecutor requests to seek a life sentence for a juvenile. Drawing on the signatories\u2019 decades of experience as law enforcement officials and judges, the letter builds on ICAP\u2019s earlier representation<\/a> of many of these officials at the U.S. Supreme Court, where they argued that proportionate sentencing principles forbid the most severe punishments for most juvenile offenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on our experience, we know that fair and proportionate punishments must account for the impact that violent crimes have on victims and survivors. Just as critically, however, we believe that the credibility of the criminal justice system requires consideration of the characteristics of juvenile offenders, including the possibility of rehabilitation,\u201d the prosecutors write. \u201cWhere a juvenile offender is capable of change\u2014as all but the rarest will be\u2014the Constitution and sound sentencing policy demand something less than the punishment of life without the possibility of parole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter urges the Department to create a committee to review all requests by federal prosecutors to seek a life sentence for a juvenile\u2014a proposal modeled after DOJ\u2019s capital case review process. \u201cAs with the death penalty for an adult, a life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile is the ultimate punishment.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Unless a juvenile offender is one of those rare children incapable of rehabilitation, the Department should deny a request to seek a life sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly half the states have now abolished juvenile life without parole, but the abolition of parole in the federal system makes it impossible for federal prosecutors to seek sentences of life with<\/em> the possibility of parole, the letter notes. The letter therefore urges the Department \u201cto advocate for a sentence of less than life where a juvenile offender is capable of rehabilitation, as nearly all will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter comes following the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2021 decision in Jones v. Mississippi<\/em>. In Jones<\/em>, the Court held that a sentencer is not required, as a procedural matter, to make a finding that a juvenile homicide offender is permanently incorrigible before imposing a sentence of life without parole. Although Jones<\/em> represented a setback for opponents of juvenile life without parole, the prosecutors point out that the Court in Jones<\/em> did not disturb well-settled principles of constitutional law, and reaffirmed that judges are not \u201cfree to sentence a child whose crime reflects transient immaturity to life without parole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prosecutors point out the stark racial disparities that exist among juveniles sentenced to life without parole. \u201cAt the state level,\u201d the letter notes, \u201cBlack inmates make up 40 percent of the overall prison population, but nearly two-thirds of the population of juveniles serving life without parole. And at the federal level, our research indicates that juvenile offenders serving life sentences are disproportionately Black, Native American, and Asian relative to the prison population as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bipartisan group includes numerous sitting elected prosecutors as well as prominent Justice Department alumnae, such as Donald B. Ayer<\/strong>, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States; Peter Keisler<\/strong>, former Acting Attorney General of the United States; James M. Cole<\/strong>, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States; David Ogden, <\/strong>former Deputy Attorney General of the United States; Gary G. Grindler<\/strong>, former Acting Deputy Attorney General of the United States; Neal Katyal<\/strong>, former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, and ICAP\u2019s Mary B. McCord<\/strong>, former Acting Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cProsecutors understand not only the need to hold accountable those who commit homicides as juveniles, but also the need for just punishment that reflects the transient immaturity of youth and the potential for rehabilitation,\u201d said McCord, ICAP\u2019s Executive Director<\/strong> and former federal prosecutor.\u00a0 \u201cGrounded in constitutional principles and common sense public policy, our letter gives the Department actionable, practical recommendations to ensure that sentences of life without parole are reserved for the exceedingly rare cases in which rehabilitation is not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgetown Law\u2019s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection uses strategic legal advocacy to defend constitutional rights and values while working to restore confidence in the integrity of our governmental institutions. A non-partisan institute within Georgetown University Law Center, ICAP\u2019s experienced attorneys use novel litigation tools, strategic policy development, and the constitutional scholarship of Georgetown to vindicate individuals\u2019 rights and protect our democratic processes.<\/p>\n

Twitter: @GeorgetownICAP<\/p>\n

Website: www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRESS RELEASE February 17, 2022 Contact: Alex Aronson, Managing Director, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, aa2595@georgetown.edu(This link opens in a new tab) Washington, D.C. – Today, a bipartisan group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11265,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-2694","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2697,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2694\/revisions\/2697"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}