As courts and government agencies across the state sort through the unconstitutional sentences of life without parole handed to nearly 500 Pennsylvania inmates, the state Supreme Court has said it will review whether it should create procedural safeguards to ensure the sentence is used sparingly.
The justices agreed April 19 in Commonwealth v. Batts to address the discretionary imposition of juvenile sentences of life without parole, as well as to determine whether Qu’eed Batts’ resentencing should be reconsidered in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which found the sentence should be “uncommon” and reserved for “the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption.”
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