State of Iowa v. Jeffrey K. Ragland

The court decides this case on the ground that a mandatory life sentence where the defendant will not be eligible for parole until he has served sixty years in prison is the practical equivalent of mandatory life without parole (LWOP) and thus violates Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012). I agree with that conclusion and therefore join the court’s opinion. I write separately to respond to the observations in Justice Wiggins’s special concurrence regarding the Governor’s commutation authority.

First, I do not believe the Governor lacked authority to commute…