Baines v. Pennsylvania

Juvenile Law Center, along with co-amici Defender Association of Philadelphia and Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, filed an amicus brief in support of the Motion to File a Second or Successive Petition Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b) filed by private attorney David R. Fine, on behalf of Franklin Baines, who was sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile in Pennsylvania and now seeks to have his sentence revisited in light of the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which banned mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles.

Baines had already filed a federal habeas petition before Miller was decided, seeking a resentencing after the Supreme Court's decision in Graham v. Florida. He now seeks to have his sentence revisited under Miller. Our brief argues that Baines is entitled to relief based on the second exception to the prohibition on filing a second or successive habeas petition, which allows a subsequent petition when it is premised on "a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable (28 U.S.C. § 2255)." Miller is a constitutional law that should be applied retroactively.

The brief further argues that the Court unambiguously resolved this question when it granted relief to Kuntrell Jackson, petitioner in Jackson v. Hobbs; that the Miller Court relied on similar cases that have all been applied retroactively; and that, because the Miller Court found a violation of the Eighth Amendment, the rule announced necessarily must provide retroactive relief, as categorically, any Eighth Amendment decision barring a particular sentence must be retroactive, including Miller. 

Oral arguments before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals took place on September 10, 2013 at the US Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia.

 The Third Circuit found that Mr. Baines and another similar petitioner “have made a prima facie showing that Miller is retroactive,” and authorized them to file successive habeas corpus petitions in the District Court. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately held that Miller applies retroactively in the 2016 case Montgomery v. Louisiana.