Supreme Court Year in Review

This isn?t just liberal weepiness. I agree that the brain science evidence is squishy, and that arguments about diminished moral reasoning, susceptibility to influence, and impulse control also map readily onto defendants who are older than 18. It all looks like a smoke bomb to deflect from what the justices are really trying to do: Draw a moral line around childhood for sentencing purposes. But one striking thing about Miller and Jackson is the extent to which they were completely trapped by the horrible circumstances of their own lives.? They went, in effect, from one life sentence to another. This argument may also be unmoored from logic, but it?s at least candid, and I found it quite persuasive.

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