Michigan Supreme Court nixes mandatory life sentences for 19-, 20-year-old murderers

Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News on Apr 10, 2025

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LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday that individuals who were 19- or 20-years-old when they murdered someone in Michigan should be resentenced.

The court in a 5-2 opinion found a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for first degree murder is an "unconstitutionally cruel punishment" for 19- and 20-year-olds because their brains aren't fully developed. One justice said he would extend the ruling to 25-year-old offenders.

"As applied to defendants who were 19 or 20 years old at the time of their crime, a mandatory LWOP (life without parole) sentence that does not allow for consideration of the mitigating factors of youth or the potential for rehabilitation is a grossly disproportionate punishment," Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote in the 5-2 majority opinion.

The decision split along party lines, with five Democratic-nominated justices supporting the majority and two Republican-nominated justices opposing.

In a concurrence, Democratic-nominated Justice Richard Bernstein agreed with the decision but said the line drawn for murders who were 21 years of age or older at the time of the crime was "underinclusive."

"I would instead follow the thoughtful conclusions of the many scientific studies presented before us and relied upon in both Parks and these cases, and hold that the turning point for any test, be it a brightline rule or a shifting age-based presumption, starts at age 25 and not age 21," Bernstein wrote.

Republican-nominated Justice Elizabeth Clement, joined by Justice Brian Zahra, wrote that first degree murder is "arguably the gravest offense under Michigan law, and it deserves the most severe sentence in Michigan." If a change is needed that recognizes a young person's immaturity or undeveloped neuroscience, the Legislature should be the one to make that change, Clement wrote.

"It is one thing for scientific evidence to justify a change in policy from the Legislature, and another thing for that same evidence to support a judicial finding that mandatory LWOP violates our Constitution," she wrote. "The bar for the latter is much higher and I do not believe it has been met."

The decision again opens a flood gate for offenders to petition for resenting in courts throughout the state, a reality prosecutors and judges have had to deal with repeatedly as the high court has inched up the age for resentencing in successive opinions over the past decade.

Many prosecutors have criticized the decisions, noting the resentencing process requires victims' families to relive the trauma of their loved one's death.

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