U.S. Sup. Ct.;
16-1177

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari. The court held that the opportunity for release afforded to a nonhomicide juvenile offender under Virginia's geriatric release program did not clearly conflict with the mandates of Graham v. Florida, 560 U. S. 48 (2010).

In 2003, a Virginia state trial court sentenced Dennis LeBlanc to life in prison for non-homicide crimes committed when he was 16 years old. Seven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Graham, holding that the Eighth Amendment prohibits juvenile offenders convicted of non-homicide offenses from being sentenced to life without parole. Such offenders were entitled instead to “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation. The following year, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided Angel v. Commonwealth, 281 Va. 248 (2011), in which it held that Virginia's geriatric release program satisfied Graham's requirement of parole for juvenile offenders. That program provided felony inmates who had reached the age of 65 and served at least five years of their sentence, as well as inmates who had reached the age of 60 and served at least 10 years of their sentence, to petition the state parole board for conditional release. The Angel court reasoned that the geriatric release program complied with Graham because it provided “the meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation required by the Eighth Amendment.” LeBlanc filed a motion in state trial court seeking to vacate his sentence in light of Graham. Relying on Angel, the trial court denied the motion. The Virginia Supreme Court summarily denied LeBlanc's requests for appeal and for rehearing.