The Court’s dicta in Roper v. Simmons seem to foreclose immediate Eighth Amendment challenges to juvenile LWOP sentences. This Comment seeks to show that the Court’s recognition of three main differences between juveniles and adults leaves open to principled attack one of the major doctrinal hooks for gaining adult court jurisdiction over juveniles, and one of the main factors in lengthy juvenile incarcerations and juvenile LWOP sentences: prosecutors’ use of felony-murder charges.
Volume 156 Issue 4 2008 Comment