You have to scroll down a lot to find Clarence Thomas’s dissent in Miller v. Alabama (which was joined by Scalia), but it’s worth it. The case involved two different murders committed by 14 year olds. Actually, only one of them directly killed anyone. The other kid was guilty of murder because he was implicated in the crime that led to the victim’s death. Both of these kids received life sentences without the possibility of parole. Today, the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that those sentences were unconstitutional. The specific problem was that the judges had no discretion. Once convicted, the judges had to impose this harsh sentence. The Court said that each case involving juveniles must be considered individually on its own merits. In other words, a mandatory minimum sentence of life without the possibility of parole for a juvenile, may be cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. As a result, states cannot set such harsh mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles. The two kids can still be sentenced to life without parole, but only after a judge looks at their cases again, with the benefit of discretion.
I hope that is clear.
Justice Thomas has a different view. He thinks that the cruel and unusual standard should only apply to the method(s) of punishment. If being locked in a jail cell isn’t cruel or unusual, then no sentence to any amount of jail time can be cruel or unusual. Using his logic, a state legislature could make stealing from the cookie jar a crime punishable by twenty years in prison and that would not be cruel or unusual. In fact, a sentence of life without parole would be perfectly legitimate. He really, truly argues this.
Justice Roberts is hardly any better in his dissent. He simply states that there is nothing unusual about people serving time in prison. Sure, some sentences might be cruel, but unless they are both cruel and unusual, then there is no problem.
Justice Alito thinks the Court has no right to hold our society to a higher level of decency than when we just hung people from public gallows or shot them down in public executions. If we burned witches in Salem, who are we to think we’re so much more enlightened today? The country’s moral fiber has been eroding since Leave It to Beaver was cancelled so, obviously, however we treated child convicts in the 1780’s should be acceptable today.
