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Kathleen Wach Comments on Juvenile Life Sentences in Mother Jones

Subtitle
"The Beltway Sniper is Now the Center of a Debate About Juvenile Lifers"

Mother Jones

Kathleen Wach, the firm's Pro Bono Counsel, commented on an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case, Mathena v. Malvo, which challenges life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed by juveniles. The ruling is expected to impact several other cases in which juvenile defendants were sentenced to life without parole. "The children who commit crimes like this, children who commit first-degree homicide, are almost always severely damaged children. People who are severely damaged do not deserve to be locked up for the rest of their lives. We owe it to them to look at what happened, to look at what brought them to this place, and devise a sentence that takes into account their situation," Wach said. Miller & Chevalier currently represents Derek Ray Jackson Jr., who was 17 when he killed a man during a convenience store robbery, and who will likely be affected by the Malvo case's outcome.