An Alaska appeals court ruling on Friday in a case involving the sentencing of minors, could reshape the fate of individuals sentenced to life in prison as juveniles.
The ruling stems from a case involving Winona Fletcher, who was just 14 years old when she and her boyfriend broke into a home in Anchorage in 1985, killing three people, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Fletcher, who became the youngest female ever convicted of murder in Alaska, received a 135-year sentence—a sentence that the court now says must be reconsidered under the state constitution.
Last year, the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that the state constitution requires judges to weigh factors such as the defendant’s age and the circumstances of their development before handing down what amounts to a life sentence without parole.
Last Friday, the court confirmed that this ruling should be applied retroactively, meaning that Fletcher, along with others in similar situations, could have their sentences revisited, according to the Associated Press.
“Making Fletcher fully retroactive would advance an important constitutional principle — namely, ensuring that juveniles tried as adults in the Alaska courts are not subject to cruel and unusual punishment and that only juveniles who have been found to be ‘irreparably corrupt’ will remain sentenced to de facto life without parole sentences,” the ruling states.
However, Marcy McDannel, Fletcher’s attorney, warned that this ruling would not lead to widespread resentencing in the state.
“This isn’t going to open the floodgates,” McDannel told the AP, adding that the ruling doesn’t necessarily mean their sentences will be reduced as some could see their original sentences reaffirmed by lower courts. “It’s applicable only to very extreme cases.”
Meanwhile, Fletcher could face resentencing as early as December, but ongoing litigation may delay the process.
Newsweek has reached out to the Alaska Court of Appeals via email for comment.
In addition, among those who may benefit from this ruling is Brian Hall, who, as a juvenile, received an even longer sentence than Fletcher’s 135 years. Hall, now having served 31 years of a 156-year sentence, could be one of the few to seek resentencing under the new legal criteria. His wife, Angela Hall, who leads a support group for families of the incarcerated, expressed hope for a brighter future. “When we read the decision, we burst into tears,” she said. “This is what we’ve been waiting for.”
The ruling comes as the percentage of the total prison population in the U.S. who were youth declined from 0.9 percent in 2002 to 0.3 percent in 2021 and the number of youth incarcerated in all U.S. adult prisons or jails declined from 2008 to 2022, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report released in 2023.
According to the report, in 2021, 87 percent of youth in adult correctional facilities were held in local jails and 13 percent were held in prisons, compared to 66 percent in local jails and 34 percent in prisons in 2002.
