Answer:
Explanation:
1. What is Felony Murder
a. Is a legal rule that expands the definition of murder. It applies when someone commits a certain kind of felony (robbery, assault, burglary) and someone else’s dies in the course of it, doesn’t matter if is intentional or accidental, the defendant is liable for it.
2. How has the sentence for felony murder for minors changed over time?
a. The US Supreme Court has changed the way of juvenile sentencing after a couple of cases for example: Roper v Simmons and Montgomery v Lousiana, these heled to prohibit the application of death penalty and life without parole for minors’ offenders.
The US supreme Court based in these principles:
i. The past cruel and unusual sentences evolved with society’s standards of decency, based on the constitution specially the Eight Amendment.
ii. Some neuroscience research confirms the difference between adolescent and adult brain, saying adolescents have less culpability planning.
c. To prosecute a child to the fullest extend o the law as an adult based on the felony murder rule as a life sentence in my opinion is wrong, for example if a child is involved in a burglary and someone is killed for starters the child didn´t do it and is not capable of understanding or imaging that could happen, and if that burglary was planned by some adult convincing the kid, that person should know, and should not be manipulating minors into felonies.
3. What reasons did the Supreme Court give for changing lifetime sentences to youths
a. After 2012 the US Supreme Curt and the federal government must consider each case individualized. For juveniles, a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional.
4. How did states react to the changes in laws from the Supreme Court decisions?
a. Since 2012, 28 states and the District of Columbia have changed their laws for juvenile offenders convicted of felony murder.
5. I will grant parole, not granting a parole will it be unconstitutional, and based on research on adolescent brain development confirms the understanding that children are different from adults in ways that are critical to identifying age appropriate criminal sentences.
