Joe Sullivan at Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City, Fla., in 2007 when he was 31 years old.
Is it unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment to send a juvenile away to prison for life, without the possibility of parole for a crime that does not involve a death? That's the question the Supreme Court ponders Monday.
In 2005, the high court struck down the death penalty for juveniles by a 5 to-4 vote. Central to that decision was the idea that the death penalty was different from other punishments and that children are different. Now, through the lens of two cases, the justices will examine the question of life without parole in non-homicide cases.
Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he was convicted of raping a 72-year-old woman. Two older defendants who had broken into the woman's house with Joe fingered their younger accomplice for the rape, and they got lesser sentences. Joe had a long record of misdemeanors, from stealing a bike to burglary. This, however, was his first felony, and the judge, declaring that the boy before him was "beyond help," sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
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