Sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole for non-murder crimes is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. That opinion in Graham v. Florida is one of four case dispositions by the Court today.

The Court also dismissed a similar case, Sullivan v. Florida, as improvidently granted. That case also involved a juvenile who was sentenced to life without parole for a non-murder charge, but it was not consolidated with Graham because of the differences in facts and procedural history.

The court also upheld a law authorizing the federal court-ordered civil commitment of prisoners beyond their prison terms if they are deemed “sexually dangerous persons” in U.S. v. Comstock.

And finally in Abbott v. Abbott, the Court ruled that, under the Hague convention, a parent has a “right of custody” to prevent the other parent from taking their child out of the country where he or she lives.

Much more on these cases to come on this blog and on Lawyers USA online.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 9:44 am and is filed under Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.