Life without Parole, or a Juvenile Death Sentence

Part II of this Note will look at the court\u27s decision to allow juveniles to be sentenced to life without parole. In doing so, this Note will outline the policies underlying the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. Next, Part III of this Note will survey more broadly the U.S. Supreme Court\u27s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment in terms of life without parole as well as death penalty cases. Part IV of this Note will then look at the reasoning of the majority and the dissent in the instant case. Finally, Part V of this Note will attempt to reconcile the reasoning of the instant case with the evolving standards of decency that mark Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, ultimately concluding that the Andrews court arrived at the wrong decision under the Eighth Amendment and appropriate precedent at the expense of Missouri\u27s youth. In the end, it may come down to the Missouri legislature to correct this problem by updating Missouri\u27s statute that punishes juvenile murderers