Ever since 2006, when the Colorado legislature ensured that juveniles convicted of murder would have a chance for parole after 40 years, lawmakers have resisted addressing an obvious related problem: What about inmates convicted as juveniles before 2006 and given life without parole?
That problem became acute in 2012 when the U.S. Supreme Court said an automatic sentence of life without parole for juveniles is unconstitutional. But still lawmakers balked at putting inmates sentenced before 2006 on the same footing as those convicted later.
On Monday, the Supreme Court took the matter out of lawmakers’ hands, making 48 inmates in Colorado eligible for sentence reviews. That’s only just, and it doesn’t guarantee that some of them won’t still spend the rest of their lives behind bars. Some deserve to. But some, as it happens, may not.
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