Recent news

Today, the United States Supreme Court granted review in Toca v. Louisiana, addressing the question of whether Miller v. Alabama applies retroactively to individuals serving mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences.

On December 8, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a joint policy guidance package to inform state and local education and juvenile justice agencies of best practices to improve the quality of education in juvenile justice facilities and remind these agencies of their legal obligations to do so.

Actor and musician Mark Wahlberg recently filed an application with the Massachusetts Board of Pardons asking the state to clear an assault conviction from 1988 when he was 16 years-old. Like many others, Wahlberg’s decades-old offense is causing roadblocks in his professional and personal life. Unfortunately, many youth who enter the justice system are haunted by the poor decisions they made as teenagers.

In an important ruling recognizing the broad scope of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama (holding that mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences are unconstitutional), the South Carolina Supreme Court recently held that Miller applies retroactively to all individuals serving life without parole sentences in South Carolina for offenses they committed as juveniles.