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No. 08-7412, 08-7621 _______________________________ In the Supreme Court of the United States _______________________________ TERRANCE JAMAR GRAHAM, Petitioner, v. STATE OF FLORIDA, Respondent _______________________________ ON WRIT OF CERTORARI TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA, FIRST DISTRICT _______________________________ BRIEF OF JUVENILE LAW CENTER, NATIONAL JUVENILE DEFENDER CENTER, CHILDREN AND FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER, ET AL. AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS ____________________________ Shobha L. Mahadev Marsha L. Levick* Patricia Soung *Counsel of Record Children and Family Jessica R. Feierman Justice Center Juvenile Law Center Bluhm Legal Clinic 1315 Walnut Street Northwestern University Fourth Floor School of Law Philadelphia, PA 19107 375 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL 60611 Robin Walker Sterling Katayoon Majd Ji Seon Song National Juvenile Defender Center 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 304 Washington, DC 20036 Counsel for Amici Curiae TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ...................................iii INTEREST OF AMICI..............................................1 IDENTITY OF AMICI...............................................2 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT...................................2 ARGUMENT...............................................................4 I. Courts Have a Special Duty to Ensure that the Eighth Amendment Adequately Protects Youth...........................................................................4 A. Supreme Court Constitutional Jurisprudence Recognizes the Unique Developmental Status of Minors...........................7 1. This Court's Constitutional Jurisprudence Recognizes the Importance of the Transitory Nature of Adolescence for Both Criminal Culpability and Criminal Procedure...................7 2. This Court’s Constitutional Jurisprudence in Civil Cases Also Takes Account of the Unique Developmental Status of Children.......12 3. Social Science Research Confirms the Transitory Nature of Adolescence and the Capacity of Youth for Rehabilitation ................15 i B. The Supreme Court’s Duty Under the Eighth Amendment to Ensure that Penalties Accord with Human Dignity Precludes the Imposition of Life Without Parole on Adolescents..............................................................20 1. When Considering Juvenile Life Without Parole, this Court Must Take Into Account the Diminished Culpability of Juveniles .................21 2. Because Life Without the Possibility of Parole Does not Serve a Legitimate Penological Purpose, it is Unconstitutional as Applied to Adolescents..............................................................26 CONCLUSION .........................................................35 APPENDIX A .......................................................... A1 ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES SUPREME COURT CASES Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002) ...................27 Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U.S. 662 (1979) .................... .12 Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 484 (1977) .................5, 27 Denver Area Edu. Telecomms. Consortium, Inc. v. FCC, 518 U.S. 727 (1996) ........................................ 13 Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 (1982) ................ 27 Ewing v. California, 538 U.S. 11 (2003) ...............5, 26 Gallegos v. Colorado, 370 U.S. 49 (1962) .................11 Ginsburg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629 (1968) ........... 13 Graham v. Collins, 506 U.S. 461 (1993) .................. 32 Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976) .................... 20 Haley v. Ohio, 332 U.S. 596 (1948) ....................10, 11 Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991) . 5, 21, 26 Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988) ...................................................................... 14 Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 (1990) .......12-13 In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967) ..................... 11, 12, 30 iii Johnson v. Texas, 509 U.S. 350 (1993) ...............8, 32 Lee v. Weissman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992) ............. .14, 30 May v. Anderson, 345 U.S. 528 (1953) ...................... 4 McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. 528 (1971) ... .12 Ohio v. Akron Ctr. For Reprod. Health, 497 U.S. 502 (1990) ........................................................................ 13 Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944) .........14 Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962) ......22, 23 Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005) .......... passim Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290, 317 (2000) .........................................................................14 Stanford v. Kentucky, 492 U.S. 361 (1989) ............. .4 Thompson v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 815 (1988) .............. .................................................................... 4, 22, 28, 30 Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 149 (1987) ..............29 Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 100 (1958) ...................20 OTHER FEDERAL CASES United States v. Jackson, 835 F.2d 1195 (7th Cir. 1987) ........................................................................ 32 iv BOOKS American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. text rev. 2000) 9 Erik H. Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis (1968) ...9 Barry C. Feld, Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court (1999) ..........12 Peter W. Greenwood, Changing Lives: Delinquency Prevention as Crime-Control Policy (2006) .............18 John H. Laub & Robert J. Sampson, Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 (2003) ....................................................................33 Richard A. Mendel, Less Hype, More Help: Reducing Juvenile Crime, What Works – and What Doesn’t (2000) ...................................................................... 16 Elizabeth S. Scott & Laurence Steinberg, Rethinking Juvenile Justice (2008) ........................... 15, 17, 29, 31 Laurence Steinberg & Robert G. Schwartz, Developmental Psychology Goes to Court, in Youth on Trial: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice (Thomas Grisso and Robert Schwartz eds., 2000) ................................................................... 30, 33 v STATE CASES Naovarath v. State, 779 P.2d 944 (Nev. 1989) passim In re Nunez 173 Cal.App. 4th 709 (2009) ................24 Workman v. Commonwealth, 429 S.W.2d 374 (Ky. 1968).. ....................................................................... 23 JOURNALS AND PERIODICALS Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Reckless Behavior in Adolescence: A Developmental Perspective, 12 Developmental Rev. 339 (1992) ................................. 9 Donna Bishop, Juvenile Offenders in the Adult Criminal System, 27 Crime & Just. 81 (2000) ....... 29 Charles M. Borduin et al., Multisystemic Treatment of Serious Juvenile Offenders: Long-Term Prevention of Criminality and Violence 63 J. Consulting & Clinical Psychol. 569, 573 (1995) .............................19 Elizabeth Cauffman & Laurence Steinberg, (Im)maturity of Judgment in Adolescence: Why Adolescents May Be Less Culpable Than Adults, 18 Behav. Sci. & L. 741-760. (2000) .................................9 Elizabeth Cepparulo, Roper v. Simmons: Unveiling Juvenile Purgatory: Is Life Really Better than Death? 16 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 225, 239 (2006) ........................................................................ 31 vi Dep’t of Health and Hum. Servs., Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General, ch. 5 (2001), http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence /chapter5/sec5.html ...................................................18 J. Mark Eddy et al., The Prevention of Violent Behavior by Chronic and Serious Male Juvenile Offenders: A 2-Year Follow-up of a Randomized Clinical Trial, 12 J. Emotional & Behav. Disorders 2, 2-7 (2004) .................................................................. 19 Jeffrey Fagan, Juvenile Crime and Criminal Justice: Resolving Border Disputes, 18 Future Child. 81, 102- 103 (2008), http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/c ontent_storage_01/0000019b/80/41/92/20.pdf ..........28 Barry Feld, A Slower Form of Death: Implications of Roper v. Simmons for Juveniles Sentenced to Life Without Parole, 22 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 9 (2008) ...................................................... 26, 31 Barry C. Feld, Competence, Culpability, and Punishment: Implications of Atkins for Executing and Sentencing Adolescents, 32 Hofstra L. Rev. 463, 515-522 (2003) .......................................................... 10 Kristen Gerencher, Understand your teen’s brain to be a better parent. Detroit Free Press, Feb. 2, 2005 ....................................................................................10 vii Nitin Gogtay, et al. Dynamic Mapping of Human Cortical Development during Childhood through Early Adulthood, 101 Nat’l Acad. Sci. Proc. 8174- 8179 (2004), http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/DEVEL/PNASD evel04.pdf ...................................................................17 W. Jeff Hinton et al., Juvenile Justice: A System Divided, 18 Crim. Just. Pol’y Rev. 466, 475 (2007) 19 Human Rights Watch, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States 63-64 (2005), http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/10/11/rest-their- lives ...........................................................................34 Eric L. Jensen & Linda K. Metsger, A Test of the Deterrent Effect of Legislative Waiver on Violent Juvenile Crime, 40 Crime & Delinq. 96, 96-104 (1994) ....................................................................... 29 Justice Policy Inst. & Children