Seven state inmates serving life-without-parole sentences out of Pulaski County for crimes committed in their youth can go before a judge for new sentences -- despite a new law stating what their term in prison should be -- the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The split decision from the state's highest court denied a petition from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who defended the new law and sought to block the resentencing hearings. It also opens the door for as many as 40 other inmates -- all convicted of murder -- from across the state to seek sentences that differ from lawmakers' chosen punishment, the state's top public defender said.
The law at issue -- the Fair Sentencing of Minors Act, or Act 539 of 2017 -- was passed with bipartisan support earlier this year to strip life-without-parole terms handed down to inmates sentenced as youths, in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court decisions that had outlawed the practice.
Act 539 also offered prisoners sentenced as teens under the old laws new opportunities at parole: after 25 years for first-degree murder or 30 years for capital murder.
Offenders re-sentenced under the law would still be given life terms, and it would be up to the Parole Board to approve the release of the inmates.
In a dissent to Thursday's ruling, two justices referred to the state's new process as the "Wyoming remedy," because it is similar to a Wyoming law cited in a U.S. Supreme Court opinion last year to retroactively apply its prohibition on life-without-parole sentences for youths.
But that remedy is not as favorable to some Arkansas inmates, who prior to Act 539 had been going before judges to seek new sentences for murder: 10 to 40 years or life with parole. With eligibility to receive time off for good behavior, some now-adult inmates sentenced in the late 1990s or later could serve a lot less time than they would under the best outcome from Act 539.
In a pair of cases this summer, two 6th Judicial Circuit Court judges sided with seven prisoners from Pulaski County, deciding the prisoners had a right to have a judge determine their new sentences. One of the judges, Wendell Griffen, declared the law unconstitutional.
Rutledge asked the high court to stay the resentencing hearings. The high court declined to do so in a series of short orders Thursday, but it did not issue an opinion explaining the decision. A spokesman for the attorney general said she had sought the stay while two appeals of sentences levied under Act 539 went to the high court.
The dissent penned by Justice Rhonda Wood called the law's resentencing guidelines "the correct procedure." She said that she, along with Justice Shawn Womack, would have granted the stays.
"The Arkansas Supreme Court was sharply divided in its decision to reject these petitions, and Justice Wood's dissent strongly suggests the decision was based not on the merits of the issues but on procedural issues," Rutledge's spokesman, Judd Deere, said in a statement.
Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said she hadn't seen the court's ruling but said lawmakers had attempted to find "balance" between justice and compassion in writing the law.
Irvin said, "It's frustrating from a lawmaker's perspective," to see courts rule contrary to the act.
Gregg Parrish, the executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, said attorneys across the state will begin seeking resentencing hearings in other courts for inmates who are now serving life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed before their 18th birthdays.
In one of the Pulaski County cases ruled on Thursday, six inmates had resentencing hearings set for Oct. 23 in Judge Herbert Wright's court. Those inmates are Damarcus Jordan, Prince Johnson, Charles Lee, Mervin Jenkins, Wallace Allen and Terry Carroll. In the other case, Brandon Hardman is scheduled for a resentencing hearing Jan. 11 in Griffen's court.
All the men but Lee were convicted of fatally shooting someone. Lee pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder for his involvement in the slaying of three children by a co-defendant. According to court records, he tried to kill the children's mother, but the shotgun jammed. State attorneys called the crime "one of the most infamous murders to take place in Arkansas during the 1990s."
Metro on 09/22/2017