Kentucky prosecutors have dropped capital charges against two defendants who had challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty for crimes committed by offenders younger than 21 years old. On April 21, 2021, prosecutors announced that they will no longer seek the death penalty against
Efrain Diaz, Jr. and
Justin Delone Smith, two of the three adolescents accused of the 2015 killing University of Kentucky student Jonathan Krueger. A third co-defendant, Roman Gonzalez, is not eligible for the death penalty because he was under 18 at the time of the crime.
Diaz and Smith were 20 and 18, respectively, at the time of the crime. When Fayette County prosecutors indicated they would seek the death penalty, the defendants’ lawyers sought to bar its use against them because of their age. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
Today, via a 5-4 ruling in
In re Pers. Restraint of Monschke and Bartholomew, No. 96772-5 (Wash. Mar. 11, 2021) (available here), the Supreme Court of Washington extended the reach of the US Supreme Court s
Miller ruling by declaring mandatory LWOP for those under 21 to be unconstitutional (pursuant to Washington s state constitutional prohibition of cruel punishment ). Here is how the majority opinion starts and ends:
Dwayne Earl Bartholomew and Kurtis William Monschke were each convicted of aggravated first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole a mandatory, nondiscretionary sentence under Washington’s aggravated murder statute. RCW 10.95.030. Bartholomew was 20 years old; Monschke was 19. Many years after their convictions, each filed a personal restraint petition (PRP) asking us to consider whether article I, section 14 of our state constitution or the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution permits a mandatory lif