National briefs: Teens may no longer be given life terms

Posted Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 Comments   (0) Print Share Share Reprints
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Teens may not get life terms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Supreme Court justices signaled Monday that they are inclined to limit or perhaps abolish the use of life prison terms for young teenagers whose crimes do not involve murder. "To say to any child of 13 that you are only fit to die in prison is cruel," Bryan Stevenson, attorney for Joe Sullivan, 13, told the court. Sullivan is among 77 prison inmates in Florida and 109 nationwide who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for nonhomicide crimes. Louisiana has 17 such inmates, California four. The others are in Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina. — Chicago Tribune

Three to be charged as adults

FLORIDA — Three Florida teenagers accused of setting another teen on fire will be charged as adults. Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16, were charged Monday with one count each of attempted second-degree murder. The Broward County state attorney’s office accuses Jarvis of pouring rubbing alcohol on 15-year-old Michael Brewer last month in Deerfield Beach. Mendez is accused of lighting Brewer on fire, Bent of directing the attack. — The Associated Press

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