Rooks v. State

Adolphus Rooks appeals from a denial of his motion to correct sentence. Rooks contends that his 1972 sentence of life with the possibility of parole for sexual battery, committed as a juvenile, violated the Eighth Amendment as announced in Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011, 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010) and Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), and as applied in Atwell v. State, 197 So.3d 1040 (Fla. 2016) and Henry v. State, 175 So.3d 675 (Fla. 2015).

For the reasons that follow, we affirm, and hold that, because Rooks was sentenced in 1972 to life with…