The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that the a juvenile offender cannot be sentenced to life in prison without parole if he or she didn’t kill anyone. The ruling signals the end of decades of get-tough sentencing where juveniles were judged to be a new baby breed of criminal from a predator generation already beyond the fold of redemption and locked up for life before reaching adulthood.

The Court said that Duval County Circuit Court Judge Lance Day imposed cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, when he sentenced 17-year-old Terrance Graham to life in prison without parole. Graham received the sentence for a violating probation on an armed burglary he committed at 16 years of age.

Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a juvenile could not be sentenced to death because children should not be judged as harshly as adults. Today’s ruling acknowledges that for juvenile defendants who haven’t committed murder the legal system should offer the possibility of redemption, parole, a second chance, said Graham’s attorney John Gowdy. “Today’s decision is a landmark decision that I believe has significant implications for our criminal justice system and for society, and significant implications in Florida,” said Gowdy.

There are about 129 other people sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-homicidal offenses in the United States, and like Graham most are African Americans. There are 77 such prisoners incarcerated in Florida. The Supreme Court ruling today means all of those cases will need to be reviewed, sentencing reconsidered and at least parole hearings offered. The Supreme Court recognized juveniles can change,” said Gowdy. “I think we should give kids a chance to redeem themselves.”

The crime that Graham and an accomplice committed wasn’t murder, but it was brutal and violent. The pair tried to rob a Bono’s on Philips Highway shortly after closing in 2003. When the robbery didn’t go off as planned, Graham’s accomplice hit the manager in the head with a steel pipe, a blow so severe it opened a gash that took 12 stitches to close. The pair fled. Both youths were found guilty and placed on probation for the crime. That was Graham’s first arrest.

While on probation for the armed robbery, Graham was arrested for armed home evasion. The case never went to trial. Based on the preponderance of evidence of his guilt, Judge Day revoked probation on the Bono’s burglary charge. In sentencing Graham, Day went way beyond the sentence sought by the Department of Corrections (four years) and the prosecution (30 years) and sentenced Graham to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

At a press conference this afternoon, Graham’s mother Mary said that the ruling gave her hope. “This is the most happiest day of my life,” she said. “This has been a long dark tunnel and now I can see a light at the end of it.

“I felt as though my son’s sentencing was unfair, and the Supreme Court felt the same way I did. Right now it is some chance at some hope.”

Graham said she hadn’t spoken to her son since the ruling. Gowdy spoke to Graham, who is now 23 years of age and incarcerated at the Taylor Correctional Institute, at 11 a.m. “He was very gratified and very hopeful,” said Gowdy. “He knows that this isn’t a get out of jail free card. He’s already spent significant time in prison. But this will give him some hope within the system that he can demonstrate that he will change for the better.”

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