Report: Thousands of U.S. Children Sentenced to Life Without Parole; 180 Child Offenders Serving Life Sentences in California

12 October 2005

At least 2,225 child offenders are serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S. prisons for crimes committed before they were age 18, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International announced in a new joint report published today. In California, the state with the largest disparity between the number of black youth and white youth sentenced to life without parole for the same crime, 180 youth offenders are currently serving life sentences.
The 157-page report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, uncovered significant racial disparities in the rate at which minority youth receive LWOP sentences compared with white youth who commit the same crimes. Nationwide, black youth receive life without parole sentences at a rate estimated to be ten times greater than that of white youth (6.6 versus 0.6). But the ratio in California is far greater. There, black youth are 22.5 times more likely to receive a life without parole sentence than white youth.
"California's disparity between the number of black youth and white youth sentenced to life without parole adds a disgraceful dimension to an already alarming phenomenon," said Samer Rabadi, deputy director of Amnesty International USA's Western Regional Office. "The United States should be ashamed that it allows kids young enough to have stuffed animals on their beds to spend the rest of their lives in prison. California prosecutors, federal judges and law makers must take youth and maturity into account when determining culpability for a crime."
The organizations are releasing the report at a critical time: while fewer youth are committing serious crimes such as murder, states are increasingly sentencing them to life without parole. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children were convicted of murder and 2.9 percent were sentenced to life without parole. By 2000, the conviction rate had dropped by nearly 55 percent (1,006), yet the percentage of children receiving LWOP sentences rose by 216 percent (to nine percent). Fifty-nine percent were sentenced to life without parole for their first-ever criminal conviction.
"Kids who commit serious crimes shouldn't go scot-free," said Alison Parker, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, who authored the report for both organizations. "But if they are too young to vote or buy cigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behind bars."
The report is the first national study examining the practice of trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. It is the product of two years of research and an analysis of previously uncollected federal and state corrections data. The data allowed the organizations to track state and national trends in LWOP sentencing through mid-2004 and to analyze the race, history and crimes of young offenders.
In 26 states the sentence of life without parole is mandatory for anyone found guilty of committing first-degree murder, regardless of age. California's law gives judges the discretion to determine how and when the sentence is used, a fact that makes the state’s disparity in sentencing black youth to LWOP even more disturbing.
According to the report, 93 percent of youth offenders serving life without parole were convicted of murder. But Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found that an estimated 26 percent were convicted of "felony murder," which holds that anyone involved in the commission of a serious crime during which a murder is committed is also guilty of murder, even if he or she did not personally or directly cause the death.
While many of the child offenders are now adults, 16 percent were between 13 and 15 years old at the time they committed their crimes. Ten states set no minimum age for sentencing children to life without parole. In fact, at least six children are currently serving the sentence who were only 13 when they committed their crimes. Once convicted, these children are sent to adult prisons and must live among adult gangs, sexual predators and in harsh conditions.
The United States is one of only a few countries in the world that permits children to be sentenced to LWOP. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by every country in the world except the United States and Somalia, forbids this practice, and at least 132 countries have rejected the sentence altogether. Thirteen other countries have laws permitting the child LWOP, but, outside of the United States, there are only approximately 12 young offenders currently serving life sentences with no possibility of parole.
The organizations called on the United States and Gov. Schwarzenegger to end the practice of sentencing child offenders to life without parole. For those already serving life sentences, immediate efforts should be made to grant them access to parole procedures.
For more information on the report, please see http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/usa/clwop/.
http://www.usnewswire.com/

Source: U.S.Newswire

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