State v. Green

LAKE, Justice.

This appeal presents for determination two separate but interrelated questions: first, whether the procedures by which juvenile court judges transfer cases to superior court are adequately protective of the due process rights of juveniles; and, if so, whether the sentencing of a thirteen-year-old, after such transfer and conviction, to a mandatory term of life imprisonment for first-degree sexual offense constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The defendant, Andre Demetrius Green, was thirteen years old on the date the crimes in this case were committed. On 28 July 1994,…