Chaz Bunch v. Keith Smith

OPINION

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

Chaz Bunch was convicted in Ohio state court of robbing, kidnaping, and repeatedly raping a young woman when he was 16 years old. The state trial court sentenced Bunch to consecutive, fixed terms totaling 89 years’ imprisonment. Bunch appealed, arguing, among other things, that the trial court violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by sentencing him to the functional equivalent of life without parole for crimes he committed as a juvenile. The Ohio Court of Appeals, however, rejected this argument and the Ohio Supreme Court…