Engweiler v. Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision

Petitioner is in prison serving a life sentence for an aggravated murder that he committed in 1990. Because he was under 17 years old when he committed the crime, he was not subject either to a sentence of “true life” — i.e., life imprisonment without eligibility for parole — or to a mandatory minimum sentence. Petitioner’s life sentence, therefore, permits him to be paroled at any time, pursuant to the authority of the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (board). In 1999, the board held what is called a “prison term hearing” for petitioner and established for him a “prison term” of…