Target: Brett Kavanaugh, United States Supreme Court Justice
Goal: Commit to rehabilitation of juvenile criminals.
Brett Kavanaugh recently voted to make it easier for judges to sentence juveniles convicted of crimes to life in prison without possibility of parole. During a hearing regarding allegations of sexual assault before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh asked not to be judged by his actions and identity as a high schooler. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee: “If we want to sit here and talk about whether a Supreme Court nomination should be based on a high school yearbook page, I think that’s taken us to a whole new level of absurdity.” His vote that allows judges to sentence juvenile criminals to life in prison without possibility of parole or determination of rehabilitation possibilities directly contradicts his own personal desire to be able to move on from his high school reputation.
Kavanaugh said that the “argument that the sentencer must make a finding of permanent incorrigibility is inconsistent with the Court’s precedents.” However, this is not true: Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana both determined that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole violates the 8th Amendment and are generally unconstitutional. Justice Sotomayor responded that “the Court” [Kavanaugh and his fellow conservatives] “simply rewrites Miller and Montgomery to say what the Court now wishes they had said, and then denies that it has done any such thing. The Court knows what it is doing.”
Sign this petition to urge Justice Kavanaugh to commit to the rehabilitation of juveniles convicted of crimes–the same opportunity for growth and change that he wanted for himself.
PETITION LETTER:
To the Honorable Justice Kavanaugh,
Justice is blind. At your own hearing leading up to your appointment to the United States Supreme Court, you asked not to be judged by the person you were when you were a child and teenager. In other words, you claimed to have grown and changed in a way such that any damning characteristics or actions committed by you as a teen should no longer be held against you. You rehabilitated. This same opportunity should be extended to all children, even those that have been convicted of crimes. Your recent vote to allow judges to sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole in the absence of any inquiry into rehabilitation of the juvenile is unnecessarily cruel and does not leave any space in sentencing for the context of crimes committed. Furthermore, it goes against landmark cases that state that these lifetime sentences for juveniles are largely unconstitutional.
I urge you to commit to the rehabilitation of juvenile criminals.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Bob Warrick
What a pathetic hypocrite