(FLC) Supreme Court to hear arguments on juvenile life sentences Judge Eugene Hyman

(Bloomberg) The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether 14-year-olds convicted of taking part in a murder can be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Less than a year and a half after ruling that such sentences are unconstitutional for youths convicted of a crime other than murder, the justices today accepted two inmate appeals that would extend that conclusion to homicide cases, at least for children 14 and under. The disputes will test the reach of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments. In one case, the high court will hear an appeal from Evan Miller, who was 14 at the time he killed his neighbor, Cole Cannon, in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 2003. The second case concerns Kuntrell Jackson, who was convicted for his role in the 1999 shooting death of a video- store clerk during a robbery in Blytheville, Arkansas. In both cases, state courts upheld sentences of life without the possibility of parole. The cases are Miller v. Alabama, 10-9646, and Jackson v. Hobbs, 10-9647.   FLC host Judge Eugene Hyman discusses the issue from the Constitutional aspects to new research on juvenile brain development.