State v. Riley

Opinion

BEACH, J.

“Determining the appropriate sentence for a teenager convicted of murder presents grave and challenging questions of morality and social policy.” Miller v. Alabama, U.S. , 132 S. Ct. 2455, 2477, 183 L. Ed. 2d 407 (2012) (Roberts, C. J., dissenting). Last term, in Miller, the United States Supreme Court held that, in addressing this complicated issue, policymakers can no longer prescribe mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles,1 even for the most serious homicide offenses. Id., 2460.

The defendant, Ackeem Riley, who was seven months shy of his eighteenth birthday…