To provide legal representation of inmates sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles at their resentencing hearings as a result of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and to train and provide technical assistance to the national criminal defense bar to represent these lifers and any new juvenile life without parole cases. JLC is working with national advocacy partners to fight against state legislative action to impose long (virtual life) sentences on juveniles after the court banned mandatory life without parole and to advance a criminal justice system in which lawyers understand adolescent development and mitigating factors in life without parole cases and the judiciary understands how teens are different and sentence accordingly. This grant also supports efforts to create a common communications strategy around the life without parole issue.
