Judicial Sentencing

Juvenile Sentencing
The murder of Cole Cannon was a heinous one indeed. He was robbed; they took his baseball card collection and three-hundred dollars from his wallet. He was beaten; the criminals attacked the poor man with a baseball bat until he laid weak and barely conscious on the floor in his own home. And after all that, they couldn’t just leave Mr. Cannon alone. As their final act, they set fire to Mr. Cannon’s trailer with him still inside. Due to his severe injuries caused by the criminals, Mr. Cannon was not able to escape. Before the fire could get to him, he died from smoke inhalation.
The Supreme Court came together on March 20, 2012, to again discuss the sentencing of Evan James Miller. Back in 2003, Miller was charged with two counts of murder, one count for during an arson, and one count for during a robbery. He was tried as an adult and was convicted of the charge of murder during arson. Evan Miller was given a mandatory prison sentence of life without parole for the murder of his neighbor, Cole Cannon.
On July 15, 2003, when Evan Miller robbed, beat, and murdered Mr. Cannon, he was only fourteen years old. It can be argued that because of Miller’s home environment and possible mental health issues, he should not be so harshly punished with a life without parole sentence. Miller’s attorneys are doing their best to get the “without parole” dropped from his sentencing, claiming that the sentence is in violation of Miller’s eighth and fourteenth amendment.
According to the United States Constitution, the eighth amendment is suppose to protect Americans from cruel and unusual punishment. For a crime so disgusting and inhuman as the one committed by Evan Miller, is a life without parole sentence really that cruel or unusual? It’s better than him being sentenced to death. The fact that Miller was fourteen, a juvenile, makes this case, and many others like it, so difficult to determine what exactly is proper punishment for juveniles when they...