Nearly 600 people sentenced to life in Michigan could be up for resentencing
After a landmark ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court, nearly 600 people convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole as juveniles could be up for resentencing.
With that comes concerns of potential overload and strain on prosecutors' offices across the state.
"Yes, there will be court resources spent on resentencing these individuals, but the savings and the potential to avoid needless, inhumane incarceration is massive," said Maya Menlo, assistant youth defender with the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO).
In a 5-2 ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court found that people who committed murder between the ages of 19 and 20 should be resentenced, rather than serve life in prison without parole. Out of the 600 people convicted, 285 are in Wayne County.
The state's high court made a similar decision for 18-year-olds.
"We need to zoom out and look at the system as a whole, not just the court system, but also the Michigan Department of Corrections," said Menlo.
The ruling, which called the original law a "violation" of Michigan's constitutional prohibition on cruel or unusual punishment, regardless of the date of the offense, says those cases should be reexamined because the defendants' brains weren't fully developed at the time.
Jose Burgos knows the consequences of that firsthand after he was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when he was 16.
"As a juvenile lifer, as a child who went to prison, was giving a life without parole sentence, I knew that the only way we were going to change that is that somebody who experienced that was going to have to come out here and explain to the people, explain to the state of Michigan, explain to this country, how horrible it is to sentence children to life without parole," said Burgos.
After serving 27 years, Burgos' sentence was reduced, and he was released in 2018.
Menlo says the April decision doesn't minimize the crimes committed – or the victims impacted – but instead ensures defendants are given fair sentences.
"Victims are not a monolith, and it is a disservice to victims to say that all of them oppose resentencing and all of them want life without the possibility of parole because we know that is simply not true," said Menlo.
SADO found that the oldest prisoner up for resentencing in Wayne County is 80 years old, and all those eligible have served a combined total of close to 8,000 years in prison.
One concern was the additional strain on county offices in terms of resources and staffing, so CBS News Detroit reached out to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who issued the following statement:
"The MSC gave us six months to review over 400 Wayne County cases. Justice cannot be fair with this timeline. We intend to be thoughtful in evaluating these cases. We must review trial transcripts, MDOC records, medical and psychological records of each of the defendants, review the documents from each of the defense lawyers and find and contact each and every one of the affected families to inform them of this decision.
"As has been the case with the MSC for years now, they do not seem to care about the plight of victims and the survivor families. These are all First-Degree Murder cases where these defendants were lawfully convicted. And we intend to be thoughtful and fair to each of these defendants. The WCPO is going to need a substantial amount of extra resources to be able to follow the dictates of the Court and do the right thing. And the timeline is untenable."
Menlo says prosecutors do have a period of around six months to review all the cases and decide whether they want to seek life without parole for those who are eligible for resentencing.
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