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Sentences for Young Murderers Limited by U.S. Supreme Court

Tourist visit the Supreme Court Building as a guard stands watch on Aug. 20, 2014 in Washington.

Tourist visit the Supreme Court Building as a guard stands watch on Aug. 20, 2014 in Washington.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Greg Stohr
Updated on

The U.S. Supreme Court gave retroactive effect to a 2012 ruling that banned automatic life-without-parole sentences for juvenile murderers, in a decision that may apply to hundreds of inmates.

The 6-3 ruling came in the case of Henry Montgomery, a Louisiana man still in prison for killing a sheriff’s deputy as a 17-year-old in 1963. Montgomery and other convicted murderers now will either become eligible for parole or gain the right to a new sentencing hearing.