WA state Supreme Court prohibits mandatory life without parole for young adults
Mar. 11—The Washington State Supreme Court has found mandatory sentences of life without parole unconstitutional for young adults and ordered two Pierce County men to be resentenced in a split ruling Thursday.
"Just as courts must exercise discretion before sentencing a 17-year-old to die in prison, so must they exercise the same discretion when sentencing an 18-, 19-, or 20-year-old," Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote in the lead opinion, signed by Justices Mary I. Yu, Raquel Montoya-Lewis and G. Helen Whitener. "... We remand each case for a new sentencing hearing at which the trial court must consider whether each defendant was subject to the mitigating qualities of youth."
Justice Steven C. González wrote a concurrence.
Pierce County jurors convicted Dwayne Earl Bartholomew of aggravated first-degree murder in 1981 and Kurtis William Monschke of aggravated first-degree murder in 2003.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/wa-state-supreme-court-prohibits-mandatory-life-without-parole-for-young-adults/ar-BB1euHrP?ocid=hplocalnews
