Summary Of The 57 Bus By Sonia Sotomayor

On April 22, 2021, it was decided that judges now have the power to sentence youth to life imprisonment without parole. Toward the case of Brett Jones guilty of killing his grandfather at the age of 15, Jones V. Mississippi was overthrown. Succeeding the majority of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in a 6-3 ruling, Kavanaugh claimed that judges should be able to sentence youth to life imprisonment without parole as it should be up to the judges’ discretion. Opposing this Justice Sonia Sotomayor believes that children should have the right to parole and strongly believes judges should still have to prove teens cannot be rehabilitated to sentence one to life in prison. Corresponding to Sotomayor, youth should have the right to parole and judges should

Richard commits a crime and ends up lighting a person on fire because of their appearance being different. After Richard committed this horrific crime, he showed great remorse and guilt. Initially, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for this act but was given parole where if he behaved correctly in jail the sentence would shorten to 5 years. The argument in The 57 Bus of why he had a chance of parole was; “The result is that while teenagers can make decisions that are just as mature, reasoned, and rational as adults’ decisions in normal circumstances, their judgment can be fairly awful when they are feeling intense emotions” (173) The brain is still developing especially when in young adulthood. Your prefrontal cortex which is responsible for making decisions isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. Up until the age of 25 humans are still more prone to make impulsive decisions and not think about the following consequences of these

Shouldn’t the youth who have a chance to change for the better be given this opportunity? As stated in The article Kanvanuagh believes “it was enough that the sentencing judge exercised discretion rather than automatically imposing a sentence of life without parole.” Kavanaugh strongly believes that the sentencing of a youth should be at the discretion of the judge. As we should have trust in our judges, however, what happens if there are crocked judges? Judges have a type of implicit bias, as every human being has an opinion and is biased. The biased opinion of one judge shouldn’t affect the rest of a childs life. To sentence an adolescent to life imprisonment even if they didn’t deserve it. There are many cases where judges have over-sentenced or had an implicit bias in their cases and wrongfully sentenced someone. In a study about the difference in sentencing compared to white and minorities; “This perspective, also known as bias theory, argues that minority youths are more likely than white youths to suffer harsher consequences at each stage of the juvenile justice decision-making process because the system treats minority youths differently (and more punitively).” This doesn’t only happen to youth but also to adults of color. The sentencing can be more lenient if you are white because of bias and