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At least 26 other states have passed laws prohibiting these sentences. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said, “When the majority of this court countermands that democratic decision (by state legislatures), what the majority is saying is that members of society must be exposed to the risk that these convicted murders, if released from custody, will murder again.”īecause of the ruling, court hearings are now held before sentencing to determine whether a possible life sentence is appropriate.Įarlier this year, lawmakers in Michigan introduced bipartisan legislation to ban minors from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. “The mandatory sentencing schemes before us violate this principle of proportionality, and so violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment,” Kagan said. Justice Elena Kagan said in the court’s opinion it would be wrong for states to ignore the chance that these now-adult inmates may someday be rehabilitated. The high court heard arguments urging them not to “give up” on child offenders who are still a work in progress, emotionally and developmentally, as one attorney called it.Įthan Crumbly is escorted by sheriff deputies after being sentenced Friday, December 8, 2023, in Pontiac, Michigan.

In a 2012 ruling, the US Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional to sentence minors to mandatory life without the possibility of parole. Shooter’s sentence came as state considers banning such punishments for minors Rowe said Crumbley’s rehabilitation in prison is unlikely because of his “obsession” with violence. “It’s clear to this court the defendant had an obsession with violence before the shooting,” Rowe said, citing Crumbley’s disturbing writings and documented violence against animals before the attack.

Rowe considered the teen’s behavior both before the mass shooting and during his time in custody, he said. In September, Rowe made headlines following his ruling that Crumbley would be eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gretchen Whitmer, made history after becoming the second Black man to serve on the Sixth Circuit bench, according to the county website. Rowe, who was appointed to the 6th Circuit Court of Oakland County in 2021 by Michigan Gov. Judge considered likelihood of rehabilitation Rowe noted the “defendant in his own words” told the court, “This is nobody’s fault but his own.” The judge dismissed last-minute pleas by Crumbley’s attorney who stated the teen’s life was salvageable.

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It’s a punishment that has become both rare and a point of contention over concerns about sentencing a minor to die in a cell before they reach full maturity.Ĭrumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, became the first minor to receive an original sentence of life without the possibility of parole in more than a decade since the US Supreme Court in 2012 banned mandatory life sentences for juveniles and ruled courts should consider the circumstances of each defendant and their maturity before such punishments are handed down.īefore issuing his sentence, Rowe told families of the victims who appeared in court that he knew “whatever sentence the court imposes will not bring your loved ones back or cure the mental anguish or the lifelong physical scars that some of you have, but I hope the sentence does allow you to close one chapter in your life.” Six other students and a teacher were also wounded in the attack.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé Rowe sentenced Ethan Crumbley, 17, on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the November 2021 shooting that left four students dead at Oxford High School. More than two years after Michigan’s deadliest school shooting, a judge imposed a historic sentence – and the harshest possible penalty – for the teenage gunman.