140-Year Sentence for Juvenile Sex Assault Upheld by 7th Cir.

A defendant convicted of raping four women when he was 15 lost his appeal on Monday, when the Seventh Circuit determined that his 140-year sentence doesn’t conflict with U.S. Supreme Court case law disfavoring life sentences that don’t afford juvenile offenders a meaningful opportunity to earn their release.

Rico Sanders will be eligible for parole in his early 50s, more than 10 years before the end of his claimed life expectancy of 63.2 years, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said. This qualifies as a “meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation” under ...