The ACLU is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to take on the case of Bobby Bostic, who was unconstitutionally sentenced to 241 years in prison for non-homicide crimes he committed when he was 16.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Graham v. Florida that the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment “prohibits the imposition of a life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide.”
The decision requires that the state provide a “meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.” The court based the ruling in part on the growing scientific recognition that the brains of children under 18 remain undeveloped, including the parts needed for behavioral control.
Find the Legal Glossary here: https://www.aclu-mo.org/en/node/124