Hobbs v. Gordon

Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in the Arkansas Supreme Court on behalf of Ulonzo Gordon, who was convicted of first degree murder for a crime committed as a teenager and for which he received a life without parole sentence.

Juvenile Law Center’s brief argued that Gordon’s conviction is unconstitutional pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which banned mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles. At the time Gordon was sentenced for a crime he committed as a minor, Arkansas law mandated a life without parole sentence for his murder-based offense. As applied to juvenile offenders, this mandatory scheme is unconstitutional pursuant to Miller. Before the Arkansas Supreme Court is whether Miller should be given retroactive effect and thus, whether Gordon should be resentenced following an individualized sentencing hearing. We asserted that Miller applies retroactively to cases like Gordon’s, which was final before the decision came down from the U.S. Supreme Court and thus is being considered on collateral review.

Specifically, our brief argued that first, the United States Supreme Court has already answered the question of retroactivity by applying Miller to Kuntrell Jackson’s case, which was before the court on collateral review. Second, Miller announced a substantive rule, which pursuant to Supreme Court precedent applies retroactively. Third, even assuming the rule is procedural, Miller is a watershed rule of criminal procedure that applies retroactively. Finally, Miller must be applied retroactively because, once the Court determines that a punishment is cruel and unusual when imposed on a child, any continuing imposition of that sentence is itself a violation of the Eighth Amendment; the date upon which an unconstitutional mandatory life without parole sentence is imposed cannot convert it into a constitutional sentence. For each of these reasons, we argued that Miller applies retroactively to Gordon.

On June 18, 2015, the Arkansas Supreme Court held that Miller applies retroactively to all individuals serving mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences in the state.