Cja 354 - Miller V. Alabama

Miller v. Alabama

CJA/354

Miller v. Alabama

The United States Supreme Court has eight associate justices, and one chief justice; they are petitioned with many cases a year to be heard and ruled on. The Supreme Court on June 25th 2012 had decided on the constitutionality of sentencing a juvenile to serve life in prison without parole is a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment. According to Cornell University Law School (2012), “Petitioner Evan Miller argued that to sentence a 14-year-old to life without parole without considering mitigating factors, such as the defendant’s age, violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments’ ban on cruel and unusual punishment.” The case reviewed was Miller v. Alabama that was a criminal case involving a 14-year-old male who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole. The reason the Supreme Court chose to hear the case is the age of the perpetrator and the mandatory minimum life sentence Miller received at the lower-level jurisdictional court (Cornell University Law School, 2012).

Evan Miller was 14-years-old in July 2003 when he robbed and savagely beat Cole Cannon. After beating Cannon with their hands, feet, and a baseball bat, Miller along with 16-year-old Colby Smith set Cannon’s trailer on fire. This act is considered actus reus because a criminal act is required for a crime to occur. The elements of actus reus was fulfilled when Miller committed the act of murder. The second component of a crime was the mens reus, or criminal intent, was demonstrated when Miller and the co-defendants covered the victim with a sheet, left the trailer, came back tried to clean the blood, and set the trailer on fire to hide the evidence. The third element of a crime is concurrence that was chronologically sequenced with Miller’s intent to commit the act followed by his commission of the criminal act (Cornell University Law School, 2012).

Miller’s case was transferred from Juvenile Court to Circuit Court so Miller can be tried as an adult. The argument in Miller’s case is that life in prison with no parole for the capital offense of murder caused by arson is disproportionate to the crime and violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 2005, the Supreme Court held that it is prohibited for 14-year-olds getting