2018—By a 4-3 divide, the California supreme court holds (in People v. Contreras) that very long sentences imposed on two juvenile offenders for brutal rapes violate the Eighth Amendment of the federal Constitution. According to Goodwin Liu, the justice who wrote the majority opinion, the two sentences (one of 50 years to life, the other of 58 years to life) are “functionally equivalent” to sentences of life without parole and thus are impermissible under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Graham v. Florida.
In dissent, chief justice Cantil-Sakauye objects that the majority misreads Graham by extending it beyond actual sentences of life without parole to sentences that are “qualitatively different.” She further points out that, contrary to Liu’s assumption, both offenders will be eligible for parole no later than age 60.