For the Defense - Vol. 6 Issue 3 - 24

Redeeming Jones v. Mississippi
Rachel Lopez
T
his past term the U.S. Supreme Court decided
a case that touched on fundamental questions
about humanity, redemption, and hope. In
that case, Jones v. Mississippi, the Court was asked to
decide whether trial courts must conclude that a child
is " permanently incorrigible " -lacking any hope for
rehabilitation-before imposing a sentence
without parole (LWOP).1
of
life
At a striking moment during
oral argument, Justice Samuel Alito asked counsel for
the petitioner: " Do you think that there are any human
beings who are not capable of redemption? " 2
Justice Alito's question is at the heart of Redeeming
Justice, a forthcoming article in the Northwestern Law
Review that I co-authored with Terrell " Rell " Carter
and Kempis " Ghani " Songster.3
Rell and Ghani were
sentenced to LWOP, which they more aptly call " death
by incarceration, " over three decades ago.
In prior case law, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that
their LWOP sentence, effectively an order to die in prison,
24 For The Defense l Vol. 6, Issue 3
The Right to Redemption
In Redeeming Justice, we adamantly resist this legally
codified condemnation, not just for juveniles, but all
human beings. Responding to Justice Alito head on,
we maintain that the capacity for change is an innate
human characteristic. Evoking the lived experience of
my co-authors and human rights law, we argue that this
represented a legal determination that my co-authors
were irredeemable. In the Court's own words, their
sentence " forswears altogether the rehabilitative ideal "
and represents " an irrevocable judgment about [their]
value and place in society. " 4
Recalling this rationale,
in Miller v. Alabama, the Court concluded that such
sentences, if mandatory, amount to cruel and unusual
punishment for juveniles, who have " greater capacity for
change. " 5
Following this decision, Ghani, who like Brett
Jones was fifteen at the time of his offense, has been
released, but Rell, who was 22 years old at the time of his
crime, remains behind bars to this day.

For the Defense - Vol. 6 Issue 3

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