Megrahi's guilty verdict [text] was handed down in January 2001. Megrahi died in Libya in May of this year after being released [JURIST reports] in 2009 due to terminal prostate cancer. His release sparked wide criticism from international and Scottish officials, but was defended by the Scottish government in 2011 [JURIST reports]. Responding to criticism of his decision to release Megrahi, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill [official website] claimed he acted in good faith, denying that there was an arrangement [Telegraph report] for Megrahi to drop his appeal in return for his release. In 2010 US lawmakers called for an investigation [JURIST report] into the role that oil company British Petroleum (BP) [official website] may have played in Megrahi's release.

In June 2011 a judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled [JURIST report] that Florida's procedure for imposing the death penalty was unconstitutional. Judge Jose Martinez held [opinion, PDF] that the procedure violates the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial [Cornell LII backgrounder]. An appeal of that case [text, PDF] has been filed with the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website]. Florida had briefly banned the death penalty in December 2006 under Governor Jeb Bush, after the botched execution [JURIST reports] of Angel Diaz. However, in July 2007, Florida Governor Charlie Crist ended the state's temporary suspension on executions. The reinstatement came before the implementation of recommended changes [JURIST report], which had been suggested by a death penalty commission convened by Bush.

It ignores that youth have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than older offenders. It ignores the racially disproportionate sentencing of youth in Pennsylvania. African American youth convicted of murder have been sentenced to life without parole in Pennsylvania at a much higher rate than white youth. It provides virtually zero public safety value at a very high cost. It will not provide a deterrent to future crime. Experts have shown that adolescents are unlikely to have the maturity and long-term rational thinking to be deterred by the prospect of a lengthy sentence.

HRW is asking Governor Corbett to veto the bill in light of the Miller decision which was handed down in June. There has been much commentary written on this issue both before and after [JURIST comments] the decision. The case was heard in conjunction with Jackson v. Hobbs [SCOTUSblog backgrounder]. During arguments before in Supreme Court regarding Miller, Justice Antonin Scalia asked, "What's the distinction between 14 and 15? ... How are we to know where to draw those lines?" Later, Miller's attorney called for 18 to be the minimum age needed to impose a life sentence, and pointed out that most of the jurisdictions that have considered the issue in a legislative context have adopted an age 18 minimum for mandatory life sentences. He offered that those jurisdictions that permitted the imposition of mandatory life-sentences did so through a regime that transferred juveniles to the adult criminal justice system where they are exposed to mandatory life sentences, not because of the express will of the people or their legislators to impose mandatory life sentences on juvenile offenders.