Prison Radio
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall

“Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Batts II Decision is an Atrocity Towards Child Offenders,” by Shakaboona.

There was no victory in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Batts II case decision. In fact, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision was an atrocity towards child offenders whom the United States Supreme Court said that children should be treated differently than adults.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Batts II, given on January 26, 2017, gis an atrocity because it supports the status quo’s illegal sentences that they’ve been re-sentencing child lifers to. It allows trial courts to re-sentence child lifers to prison terms of 35 years to life using a statutory law that does not apply to them. It permits trial courts to create prison terms for child offenders out of thin air, causing judges to legislate from the bench.

And to make matters for child offenders even worse, trial courts can now impose a minimum sentence greater than the 35 years to life that child offenders are currently receiving. Courts can now impose a harsher sentence than 35 years to life, perhaps 45 years to life prison terms now.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision was ultimately 87 pages of verbal diarrhea that regurgitated the United States Supreme Court’s decision made in Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana in that Miller and Montgomery cases had already required a presumption against the imposition of life without parole for child offenders, already required a notice to be given when seeking life without parole sentences, already required a proof beyond reasonable doubt standard, and had already required for expert testimony to be given. It was only a great loss in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision of Batts II.

Their decision just shows everyone how right-wing, conservative, hostile, out-of-touch, and unjust the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices are, but that’s okay, because in Pennsylvania, judges have elections too.

From the belly of the beast at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona. Thank you for listening.