New “Raise the Age” legislation that went into effect this year appears to be rolling out smoothly, according to the latest updates from South Carolina’s Department of Juvenile Justice. Back in 2016, legislators amended state law to allow the ...

Tagged with: Juvenile

CHESTER (AP) A man sent to prison for life for killing a couple in South Carolina when he was 16 is getting a new sentence for the crime. Theodore Harrison Jr. is in court this week in Chester County. Harrison ...

Tagged with: Juvenile life sentence Murder trial

In re Justin B. (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-027-17, 10 pp.) (John Few, J.) (Donald Beatty, C.J. & Kaye Hearn, J., concurring in the result only without separate opinion) Appealed from Spartanburg County Family Court (Phillip Sinclair, J.) S.C. S. Ct. ...

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U.S. v. Under Seal (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-083-17, 37 pp.) (Floyd, J.) No. 15-4539, April 5, 2017; USDC at Alexandria, Va. (Lee, J.); 4th Cir. Holding: In this case involving prosecution of a murder of a member of the MS-13 ...

Tagged with: Juvenile

A juvenile defendant facing charges of murder in aid of racketeering cannot be tried as an adult because the possible sentence would run afoul of recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a ...

Tagged with: Juvenile Murder

Dozens of inmates serving mandatory life sentences in South Carolina may get a chance at parole thanks to a Jan. 25 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. In an unusual move, the high court held in Montgomery v. Louisiana that ...

Tagged with: Juvenile

COLUMBIA (AP) — Some South Carolina felons serving life sentences are getting a chance at less time in prison, according to a ruling by the state’s highest court. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court ruled that at least 15 felons ...

Tagged with: Juvenile life sentence Sentencing south carolina supreme court

In re Kevin R. (Lawyers Weekly No. 010-090-14, 17 pp.) (Donald Beatty, J.) (Jean Hoefer Toal, Ch. J., concurring in part & dissenting in part) (Costa Pleicones, J., joined by John Kittredge, J., concurring in part & dissenting in part) ...

Tagged with: Juvenile

EASTON, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania inmate who was a 14-year-old gang member when he fatally shot another teenager has lost his bid for a sentence reduction. Twenty-two-year-old Qu’eed (kwah-EED’) Batts was sentenced Friday morning to life in prison without ...

Tagged with: Juvenile life sentence Prison

South Carolina’s Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments this week in a case that could not only give at least three dozen inmates serving life in the state’s prisons a chance at freedom but also alter juvenile sentencing practices ...

Tagged with: Juvenile life in prison S.C. Supreme Court