LITTLE ROCK -- Dozens of Arkansas inmates serving life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles could have their sentences reconsidered if two of them prevail in arguments before the state's highest court this week, while the prisoner whose case was covered under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling is becoming eligible for a parole hearing.
As of Tuesday, Kuntrell Jackson will have served 70 percent of his revised sentence and will be allowed to ask for an annual parole hearing. A lawyer for two of the state's 56 other juvenile offenders serving the mandatory life sentences is hoping arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday open the door for the others to soon be in the same position.
Jackson, who was 14 when he was charged with capital murder for his role in the slaying of a video store clerk during a robbery, was sentenced to life without parole. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered that he be re-sentenced after it heard his case as a companion to its 2012 Miller v. Alabama decision that banned mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles. The court plans to hear a Louisiana case later this year to determine if that opinion should be applied retroactively nationwide.
In the meantime, the Arkansas Supreme Court is preparing for oral arguments Thursday to decide whether the state will retroactively apply the Miller v. Alabama decision to the 56 other inmates. If it opts to do so, Arkansas would be the eleventh to retroactively apply the decision, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, a nonprofit that advocates for lesser juvenile sentences.
Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig represents two of the inmates, Aaron Hodge and James Grubbs, both of whom were 17 when they were charged with capital murder for separate crimes committed in the 1990s. Hodge was convicted of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his stepfather, stepsister and mother. Grubbs was convicted of capital murder in the death of a classmate whose body was found bound, beaten and submerged in a creek.
A Circuit Court judge granted their appeal last year after the Miller decision, and the Arkansas attorney general's office has appealed that decision on behalf of the Department of Corrections.
"If we win, then Hodge and Grubbs and everyone else gets a resentencing and can argue for a sentence of less than life," Rosenzweig said. "They still could get a life sentence, but they would at least have that opportunity."
A legislative move to address the issue failed last month when the Arkansas General Assembly rejected legislation to retroactively apply the court's decision and ban the possibility of life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders.
Lori Kumpuris, the assistant prosecutor coordinator for the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said the group opposed retroactively applying decisions in general.
"I think our prosecutors would be more comfortable with the court making that decision, instead of doing that legislatively," she said.
As for Jackson, now 29, the Arkansas Department of Community Correction said it would likely be a few months before the parole board would consider his case because of disciplinary infractions. Spokeswoman Dina Tyler said in order to receive parole consideration, inmates must be in a better behavior classification.
Asked what infraction had raised Jackson's class level, Tyler said officials believed he had used a cellphone. She said other infractions had shifted him to the maximum security unit.
State Desk on 04/14/2015