Death Penalty Opponents Should Rethink Their Support for Life Without Parole Sentences

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—argues that life sentences without the possibility of parole (LWOP) are as problematic and damaging as the death penalty. For this reason, Professor Sarat calls upon death penalty opponents to reconsider their support for LWOP sentences.

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State v. Weems

Docket: M2018-02288-SC-R11-CD

Opinion Date: March 1, 2021

Judge: Bivins

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals and vacated the decision of the trial court to grant Defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal as to an aggravated child neglect charge, holding that a reasonable jury could have found the necessary elements of the crime of aggravated child neglect. Following the death of her infant child, Defendant was convicted of reckless homicide and aggravated child neglect. The trial court granted Defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal as to the aggravated child neglect charge. The court of criminal appeals affirmed, concluding that the evidence was insufficient to prove that Defendant knowingly neglected her child. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Defendant knowingly neglected her child by not feeding her and her child died as a result.