Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion: “Those prisoners who have shown an inability to reform will continue to serve life sentences. The opportunity for release will be afforded to those who demonstrate the truth of Miller’s central intuition — that children who commit even heinous crimes are capable of change.” (McGrough) Showing we can be comfortable with this assessment without adopting the credulous view that juvenile killers assume no accountability for their offenses because “my brain made me do it.” Clearly most minors don’t execute vicious crimes, and those who do must pay some price. Lessened amount for the realistic or ethical contemplation doesn’t mean any amount at all. Also, some killers who performed their crimes when they were young maintain to pose a risk to society decades later, and judges and parole boards can take that into
Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion: “Those prisoners who have shown an inability to reform will continue to serve life sentences. The opportunity for release will be afforded to those who demonstrate the truth of Miller’s central intuition — that children who commit even heinous crimes are capable of change.” (McGrough) Showing we can be comfortable with this assessment without adopting the credulous view that juvenile killers assume no accountability for their offenses because “my brain made me do it.” Clearly most minors don’t execute vicious crimes, and those who do must pay some price. Lessened amount for the realistic or ethical contemplation doesn’t mean any amount at all. Also, some killers who performed their crimes when they were young maintain to pose a risk to society decades later, and judges and parole boards can take that into