The Tennessee House will vote on Thursday whether they will rescind life without parole sentencing for juveniles who commit aggravated rape of a child. Instead, those offenders would be charged with a Class A felony and sentenced in accordance with Range III provisions – 40 to 60 years’ imprisonment.
According to a summary of the bill, charging juveniles with life imprisonment without parole was declared unconstitutional under the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama.
An amendment to the bill, added Thursday, would also require that juveniles convicted of aggravated rape of a child must serve their sentence in full. That is, unless they reduce that sentence by up to 15 percent through sentence credits.
State Representative Mary Littleton (R-Dickson) introduced the bill. Its companion was introduced by State Senator Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro).
During subcommittee, Littleton cited previous legislation passed in 2019 that imposed the life without parole sentencing on juveniles convicted of aggravated rape of a child.
Other criminal justice bills sponsored by Littleton include proposals that require law enforcement notification to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services concerning prostitutes under 18 years old, expand the definition of severe child abuse to include any allowance of children to be around certain drugs in a house, and prohibit mental health providers from engaging in sexual relationships with any victims of sexual battery they’re treating.
One of Littleton’s bills that would require the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to create a sexual assault kit database accessible to victims died in subcommittee.
Littleton didn’t respond to request for comment from The Tennessee Star by press time concerning the juvenile life sentencing bill.
The bill was voted through unanimously by the Senate on Thursday.
If passed, the bill will head to the governor for approval and could be implemented as early as July 1 of this year.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
In Common Law and formerly in Tennessee Rape a most heinous crime the punishment was death. everyone but the Rapist and family and bleeding heart weak kneed and the perverted still want to see Capitol and immediate punishment for Rape. It is heinous and capitol crime!
Quit mollycoddling unredeemable Predators, Murders etc. Remove them from Society and let it be known that any one that rapes a woman or child or man “will be” executed and quickly. That is how you stop crime!