Religion-Based Arguments in Juvenile Life
Without Parole Cases
-- Joan
Gottschall
[Joan Gottschall is a United States District Judge
for the Northern District of Illinois, a member of the Visiting Committee to
the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a member of the Martin Marty
Center Advisory Board.]
Those interested in the intersection of religious
values and public policy, and particularly criminal justice policy, should take
note of a brief filed this past summer in the Supreme Court of the United
States in the joined cases of Graham v. Florida, No. 08-7412, and
Sullivan v. Florida, No. 08-7621, on behalf of approximately twenty
religious organizations as amici curiae or friends of the Court (see
endnotes for a full list of organizations). These two cases present the
issue of whether the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution’s ban on cruel and
unusual punishment proscribes the sentencing of juveniles convicted of
non-homicide offenses to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,
as occurred in these two cases. Oral argument for the cases took place on
Monday, November 9.
The brief is noteworthy for a number of
reasons. First, it represents an effort by the diverse religious groups
involved to speak in one voice on a matter of faith and conviction. Second,
the brief locates as central to each of these faith traditions the values of
mercy, forgiveness and compassion, and the link between these values and
concepts of justice and charity: “In short,” the brief states, “religious texts
make clear that each of these three values–mercy, forgiveness, and
compassion–must guide interpersonal and societal relations, and are to serve as
the bedrock principles for a just and fair society.” Third, amici make
the claim, rarely heard in contemporary culture, that the duty of a judge, and
of a society imposing judgment, is to make adequate provision for these values.
The legal position advanced by the brief is also
remarkable, for amici argue that their shared religious values require the
Supreme Court to reverse the Florida judgments and to hold that it is a
violation of the Eighth Amendment to sentence juveniles convicted of
non-homicide offenses to life without the possibility of parole. The
brief reasons as follows: First, it reviews traditional religious
recognition of the distinction between children and adults, both in religious
teachings regarding crime and punishment and in other aspects of religious
law. It then summarizes the growing scientific support for this
distinction and reviews the widespread cultural recognition that “the physical
and mental immaturity of youth requires special treatment.” Third, it
argues that ignoring the special status of youth and condemning juveniles to
die in prison contravenes the fundamental religious values of mercy,
forgiveness, and compassion. The brief points out that all individuals
are entitled to these, but that the weak and vulnerable (such as children) have
a special entitlement to compassionate treatment. Indeed, it states that
“[J]uveniles who commit serious crimes often come from disadvantaged
backgrounds: many are poor, and frequently they have been the victims of abuse
and neglect. These are exactly the type of children the amici’s faith
traditions stress are most deserving of kindness and compassion.”
Finally, the brief discusses the religious problem
posed by a natural life sentence imposed on a juvenile offender. Such a
sentence is unjust, the brief argues, because it fails to recognize the
potential of juveniles to grow, develop, and be rehabilitated; it thus
contravenes the foundational concept of rehabilitation within each of the
amici’s faith traditions. The brief quotes the Florida judge who
sentenced Terrance Jamar Graham (sixteen years old when he committed the crime
for which he was sentenced) to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole. The judge noted Graham’s “escalating pattern of criminal
conduct,” and concluded, “[T]here is nothing we can do for you.” This
“nihilistic view,” the brief argues, “is antithetical to the perspectives of
amici’s faith traditions and of American society at large.”
The amici observe that their religious traditions
recognize that “just punishment must allow for the offender to be rehabilitated
and restored to the community when possible.” Each of their traditions,
they write, embraces the principle of “restorative justice,” which involves
establishing a system of justice that, in the words of Michael L. Hadley,
“moves from punishment to reconciliation, and from vengeance against offenders
to healing for victims, from alienation and harshness to community and
wholeness, from negativity and destructiveness to healing, forgiveness, and
mercy.” The brief describes with detailed examples how the concept of
restorative justice is rooted in the faith traditions of the amici.
Anyone who has read the news of the last several
months is aware of the controversy ignited by the President’s remark that among
his criteria in selecting judges was empathy. As the pundits are fond of
pointing out, on this issue, even his Supreme Court nominee “threw him under
the bus.” In the context of our contemporary public discourse, the
importance of the argument of these amici curiae cannot be overstated.
Their insistence on the religious centrality of mercy, forgiveness, compassion,
and rehabilitation, and the relevance of these values to our system of justice,
is a message rarely heard.
Notes:
Quotations come from the Brief of Amici Curiae, and
from Michael L. Hadley, “Multifaith Reflection on Criminal Justice”, introduction
to The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, ed. Michael L. Hadley
(SUNY Press, 2001).
The religious organizations joining in the amicus
curiae brief include the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists,
the American Catholic Correctional Chaplains Association, the American Friends
Service Committee, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Engaged Zen Foundation,
the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, the Islamic Shura Council of
Southern California, the Mormons for Equality and Social Justice, the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, the Office
of Restorative Justice of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Prison Fellowship
Ministries, and the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist
Church, among others. The brief was prepared by lawyers at the law firm
of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP, led by Michael B.
deLeeuw.
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Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the
University of Chicago Divinity School.
