© 2024 WNMU-FM
Upper Great Lakes News, Music, and Arts & Culture
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Report: Half of Michigan juvenile lifers await resentencing

DETROIT, MI (AP)--   A newspaper reports more than half of Michigan inmates who are eligible for resentencing following a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on so-called juvenile lifers still are waiting to learn their fate. 

The Detroit Free Press reports Thursday its analysis found nearly 200 inmates, or about 55% of those eligible, haven't gotten new sentencing hearings.

As of early July, the newspaper says 86 of the state's 354 juvenile lifers have been released.

Tina Olson, an attorney with the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, says: "We are not resolving cases at the rate that you would hope, given that the United States Supreme Court said these sentences should be rare." Her office is representing roughly two-thirds of the state's cases.

Prosecutors defend the process and say they're thoughtfully weighing each case.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.