Cyntoia Brown, William Barr, and Juvenile Life Without Parole
Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia Brown clemency for a crime committed when she was sixteen years old. Convicted as an adult for murder and given a life sentence, she faced the prospect of living most or all of the rest of her life in prison. Brown, like thousands of other people sentenced as children, was victim to the juvenile life without parole sentences advocated by proponents of “tough on crime” measures, like Attorney General nominee William Barr. As Attorney General, Barr wholly embraced the theory of “incapacitation,” or the belief that extended physical restraint of offenders leads to reduced crime.” Barr’s concept of incapacitation centers on two elements; longer sentences and more prisons. “The choice is clear,” according to Barr, “[m]ore prison space or more crime.” Applying the incapacitation theory to youth offenders, Barr favored “tough” sentences that emphasized discipline, such as boot camps, for first-time, nonviolent […]
The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure equal justice for all through the rule of law, targeting in particular the inequities confronting African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. The Lawyers’ Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.