Courthouse News

Juveniles should not be sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-homicide crimes, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, and ordered resentencing of two men who committed their crimes when they were 17.

Ricky Zuber was sentenced to 110 years in prison for two gang rapes in which he participated in 1981. He was not eligible for parole for 55 years, and the sentence was affirmed on appeals.

James Comer participated in four armed robberies in two days in 2000, in one of which an accomplice shot and killed a victim. Comer was sentenced to 75 years in prison, with no parole for 68 years.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, “that ‘youth and its attendant characteristics’ must be considered at the time a juvenile is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, [and] should apply to sentences that are the practical equivalent of life without parole to satisfy the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment,” according to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling.

“The defendants in these appeals committed very serious, violent crimes when they were juveniles,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the Jan. 11 ruling. However, “because of how young they were at the time of their offenses, both defendants will likely serve more time in jail than an adult sentenced to actual life without parole.”

Miller v. Alabama requires judges to consider the possibility of rehabilitation and the defendant’s immaturity, among other factors, Rabner wrote. In Miller, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “the mitigating qualities of youth,” and the “failure to appreciate risks and consequence,” should be considered when a juvenile is sentenced.

In the Miller case, two 14-year-old boys were convicted of murder — one shot a clerk while robbing a video store, and the other beat a neighbor to death with a baseball bat and set fires to cover up the crime. Both were sentenced to life without parole. [MORE]