NATION/WORLD
Saturday, August 5, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Sessions’ pot fury not
echoed by task force
WASHINGTON (AP)
— The betting was that
law-and-order
Attorney
General Jeff Sessions would
come out against the legal-
ized marijuana industry with
guns blazing. But the task
force Sessions assembled to
fi nd the best legal strategy is
giving him no ammunition,
according to documents
obtained by The Associated
Press.
The Task Force on Crime
Reduction and Public Safety,
a group of prosecutors and
federal law enforcement
offi cials, has come up with
no new policy recommenda-
tions to advance the attorney
general’s
aggressively
anti-marijuana
views.
The group’s report largely
reiterates the current Justice
Department policy on mari-
juana.
It encourages offi cials
to keep studying whether
to change or rescind the
Obama
administration’s
more hands-off approach
MDOC via AP
This combination of photos provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows Chester Lee
Patterson in 1971 and in Aug. 8, 2015. Patterson has been behind bars for 45 years. At 17, he fatally shot a
store clerk during a robbery. He got life with the possibility of parole after 10 years. Patterson has earned
degrees, completed a substance-abuse program, worked in the library, and avoided disciplinary tickets.
He’s also been denied parole at least fi ve times, according to records.
Locked up for life
High court juvenile lifer ban spurs wider review of cases
By JULIET LINDERMAN
Associated Press
BALTIMORE — A U.S.
Supreme Court decision
triggering new sentences for
inmates serving mandatory
life without parole for crimes
committed as juveniles has
had a far greater effect: The
ruling is prompting lawyers
to apply its fundamental logic
— that it’s cruel and unusual
to lock teens up for life — to a
larger population, those whose
sentences include a parole
provision but who stand little
chance of getting out.
The court in January 2016
expanded its ban on manda-
tory life without parole for
juveniles to more than 2,000
offenders already serving
such sentences, saying teens
should be treated differently
than adult offenders because
they’re less mature, prone to
manipulation and capable of
change. The court found that
all but the rare juvenile lifer
whose crime refl ects “perma-
nent incorrigibility” should
have a chance to argue for
freedom one day, and dozens
serving mandatory terms have
since been resentenced and
released.
But legal challenges are
also being argued on behalf
of offenders sentenced to life
with parole for crimes they
committed as teens — a popu-
lation totaling some 7,300
inmates nationwide, according
to Ashley Nellis at advocacy
group The Sentencing Project.
“Even states that do have
parole, it doesn’t give a lot of
reason for hope,” Nellis said.
“The Supreme Court was very
clear to say that age-related
factors need to be considered
at resentencing or parole
review, but the feedback we’re
seeing is that those factors
aren’t being considered.”
Other courts are applying
the 2016 ruling to those whose
life-without-parole sentences
weren’t mandatory or were
negotiated as part of a plea
deal. In Florida, more than 600
inmates are potentially eligible
for new sentences because
court decisions there require a
new look at anyone serving life
for crimes committed as minors
— even if their sentences were
optional or included the possi-
bility of parole.
The Supreme Court has not
ruled on these other circum-
stances, but some state courts
have. In January, New Jersey’s
Supreme Court ordered new
sentences for two former teen
offenders with de facto life
terms. One was serving 110
years, with parole eligibility
after 55 years; the other had 75
years, with parole eligibility
after serving 68. The court
noted both defendants would
“likely serve more time in
jail than an adult sentenced to
actual life without parole.”
The number of years
inmates must serve before
parole
eligibility
varies
by offense and state: In
Tennessee, a lifer must serve
century, and the parole board
is still saying no.”
His case isn’t unique.
In Florida, a state Supreme
Court ruling last year said
that juvenile offenders who
were eligible for parole must
be resentenced to ensure they
have a real opportunity for
release. The ruling came in the
case of Angelo Atwell, who
got life with the possibility
of parole after 25 years for a
murder he committed in 1990
at age 16. When it came time
for Atwell to argue for his
freedom, the state calculated
his presumptive release date
as 2130 — 140 years after
the standard when he declared
in 1995 that “life means life,”
says the system he designed is
dysfunctional.
“What happens with lifers
now, I had some responsibility.
And I say that not with pride,
but with regret,” Glendening
told the AP. “What we’re
fi nding now is people who are
juveniles ... they are now aging
in prison, are probably a threat
to no one at this stage. It’s a
question of humane treatment:
Is it humane or cruel and
unusual to have someone
sitting in jail at 50, 60, 70 for
an offense committed half a
century ago?”
“I am not the same 17-year-old kid.
I will never commit another crime again.”
— Chester Lee Patterson, serving life sentence in Michigan for murder
51 years. In Texas, 40. Lifers
could qualify for a hearing
after 10 years in Michigan,
but that doesn’t mean
they’ll get one. In 44 states,
parole boards are appointed
by governors, and review
processes vary greatly. Some
boards review prisoner fi les
without in-person interviews.
Some states specify factors to
consider; others allow signifi -
cant discretion.
If a prisoner is denied, he’ll
likely wait several years for
another chance and sometimes
isn’t told why.
Chester Patterson, 63,
has been behind bars for 45
years in Michigan. At 17,
he fatally shot a store clerk
during a robbery. He got life
with the possibility of parole
after 10 years. Patterson has
earned degrees, completed
a substance-abuse program,
worked in the library, and
avoided disciplinary tickets.
He’s also been denied parole
at least fi ve times, according
to records. Each time, the
board sends a notice that says,
“no interest.” He’s awaiting a
decision after his most recent
hearing in April.
“I am not that same
17-year-old kid. I will never
commit another crime again,”
Patterson wrote to The
Associated Press. “I caused
a terrible tragedy for which
I will always be sorry and
shameful. What more can I
say to the family? I have been
here for almost a half of a
sentencing.
“While technically Atwell
is parole eligible, it is a virtual
certainty that Atwell will
spend the rest of his life in
prison,” the justices wrote,
and his sentence, “virtually
indistinguishable from a
sentence of life without parole,
is therefore unconstitutional.”
Atwell awaits a new
sentencing hearing.
Iowa’s highest court in
2013 found that the governor
didn’t comply with the U.S.
Supreme Court when he
commuted the life-with-
out-parole sentences of 38
juveniles to life with the possi-
bility of parole after 60 years,
because they wouldn’t be
eligible until they surpass their
life expectancy. “Oftentimes,
it is important that the spirit
of the law not be lost in the
application,” the court wrote.
More legal challenges have
been fi led in North Carolina,
Illinois and Missouri, among
other states.
Maryland,
Oklahoma
and California are the only
three states that require
the governor to sign off on
parole recommendations for
lifers. Last year the American
Civil Liberties Union sued
Maryland, arguing that a life-
with-parole sentence doesn’t
afford prisoners a meaningful
shot at release because gover-
nors for two decades haven’t
approved any petitions. Even
Parris Glendening, the former
Maryland governor who set
Maryland’s
parole
commission in October began
reviewing all 271 lifers who
committed crimes as juveniles,
according to commission
chairman David Blumberg.
As of May, the commission
had reviewed 76 cases: 45
have been scheduled for
additional hearings, 20 were
referred for psychological risk
assessments, and nine were
refused parole. Two asked
for postponements. None has
been released.
Gov. Larry Hogan said he
and his team take the process
seriously.
“They meet with the
inmate. ... They talk with
the victim’s families and
witnesses and spend months
and months,” he said. “And in
a few cases I was convinced
that people had served their
debt to society and deserved
a second chance, and several
of them were people that were
convicted at a very young age
and had served long, long
sentences and had been model
prisoners and really rehabili-
tated themselves.”
But Hogan hasn’t approved
any parole bids for juvenile
lifers. The commission, on
average, has recommended
fewer than two prisoners
serving life sentences for
parole per year since 1995,
according to public defender
James Johnston, who says the
state’s system contravenes the
essence of the Supreme Court
rulings.
to enforcement — a stance
that has allowed the nation’s
experiment with legal pot to
fl ourish.
Sessions,
who
has
assailed
marijuana
as
comparable to heroin and
blamed it for spikes in
violence, has been promising
to reconsider existing pot
policy since he took offi ce
six months ago. His state-
ments have sparked both
support and worry across
the political spectrum as a
growing number of states
have worked to legalize the
drug.
Threats of a federal
crackdown have united
liberals, who object to the
human costs of a war on
pot, and some conservatives,
who see it as a states’ rights
issue. Some advocates
and members of Congress
had feared the task force’s
recommendations
would
give Sessions the green light
to begin dismantling a multi-
million-dollar pot industry.
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