People v. Eads
The Michigan Supreme Court will consider an appeal of an intermediate decision that held a 50-year minimum sentence for a defendant convicted of second-degree murder as a juvenile is “cruel or unusual” punishment. The Court of Appeals found that sentence constitutionally equivalent to the parolable life sentence the Michigan Supreme Court found “cruel or unusual” in People v. Stovall. The intermediate court also held that the defendant’s sentence was disproportionate given the sentencing court’s failure to consider his youth and its attendant characteristics as mitigating factors.
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