See -
http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/10/rights-group-asks-pennsylvania-governor-to-veto-juvenile-life-sentence-bill.php
"x x x.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] wrote a letter [text] to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett [official website] on Friday asking him to veto legislation [SB 850 text] which would maintain the sentence of life without parole as an option for child offenders. According to HRW, the bill would go against the spirit of the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which held [JURIST report] that mandatory life sentences for juveniles is unconstitutional. The bill applies a prison sentence of either life without the possibility of parole for juveniles or with the first parole hearing after 35 years for those over 15 and 25 years for those under 15. In the letter, HRW detailed several problems with the law:
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.x xx."
