Legal Docket

Argued that Massachusetts' sentencing scheme for juveniles 14 and older convicted of first degree murder is unconstitutional under Miller v. Alabama and that the Massachusetts Supreme Court must look to existing statutes to determine what constitutional sentence may be imposed. 

Argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on mandatory life without parole sentences in Miller v. Alabama should apply retroactively to juveniles who were sentenced to life without parole before the ban. 

Argued that California's sentencing statute, in which the presumptive sentence for any juvenile age 16 or older convicted of first degree murder with special circumstances is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, is unconstitutional under Miller v. Alabama. 

Petitioner Joseph Wang was sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile in federal court in New York. He had already filed federal habeas petitions before Miller was decided, and he now seeks to have his sentence revisited in light of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Miller v. Alabama.

Brief in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of C.S., a teen charged under felony child pornography for posting an intimate video of two classmates on Facebook.

Argued that Alaska’s Parental Notification Law, requiring minors to notify their parents when they choose to have an abortion, violates equal protection under the Alaska Constitution. 

Motions were filed with the juvenile court seeking nunc pro tunc relief on behalf of youth who in York County had been adjudicated delinquent for sex offenses prior to December 2012 when the SORNA law went into effect. The motions for nunc pro tunc relief ask the court to reconsider their classification as juvenile sex offenders and remove their information from the sex offender registry.

Motions were filed with the juvenile court seeking nunc pro tunc relief on behalf of five youth who had been adjudicated delinquent for sex offenses prior to December 2012 when the SORNA law went into effect; in December, they were required to register as sexual offenders. The motions for nunc pro tunc relief ask the court to reconsider their classification as juvenile sex offenders and remove their information from the sex offender registry.

Argued that youth should not be forced to incriminate themselves while undergoing court-ordered sex offender treatment.