Changing Youth’s Life Without Parole Sentence to 65 Years Valid

The 65-year sentence that replaced the life-without-parole sentence a youthful offender received for murder was constitutional even though the prisoner’s life expectancy made the two sentences effectively the same thing, the en banc Third Circuit said Monday.

In Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court said that the Eighth Amendment rights of juveniles are violated by a LWOP sentence if the judge didn’t have discretion to impose a different sentence. The new sentence Corey Grant received in light of Miller met that standard, the opinion by Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith said.

Grant was convicted in 1992 for a ...