Montgomery's Trial: The Miller V. Louisiana Case

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On November 13, 1963, 17-year-old African American Henry Montgomery shot and killed a Caucasian Sheriff Deputy named Charles Hurt in a park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This came to be known as Montgomery v. Louisiana. At Montgomery’s trial, a jury convicted him of murder and he was sentenced to death. In January 1966, the Louisiana Supreme Court annulled this ruling after finding that Montgomery did not receive a fair trial due to public prejudice. The jury then returned a verdict of “guilty without capital punishment” which is an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole (Montgomery). In a new 2012 case, Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that mandatory sentencing of minors convicted of homicide to