Veal v. State
Veal v. State
Opinion of the Court
*128This is Robert Veal's second appeal of his convictions for crimes committed in the course of two armed robberies on November 22, 2010. See Veal v. State ,
is irreparably corrupt or permanently incorrigible, as necessary to put him in the narrow class of juvenile murderers for whom an LWOP sentence is proportional under the Eighth Amendment as interpreted in Miller [v. Alabama ,567 U.S. 460 ,132 S.Ct. 2455 ,183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012) ] as refined by Montgomery [v. Louisiana , --- U.S. ----,136 S.Ct. 718 ,193 L.Ed.2d 599 (2016) ].
Veal I , supra at 703,
At the sentencing hearing the trial court conducted on remand, the State announced it would forgo seeking LWOP and, instead, asked the court to impose two additional consecutive life with parole sentences (for the malice murder conviction and one of the armed robbery counts that the trial court previously incorrectly merged with the murder conviction, see Veal I ), in addition to the other consecutive life sentences already imposed. Veal introduced published life expectancy tables to support his assertion that the recommended sentence would exceed his life expectancy. The trial court, however, rejected Veal's assertion that this would amount to a de facto LWOP, and imposed the State's recommended sentence without making an individualized determination regarding the appropriateness of the sentence pursuant to Miller . The new cumulative sentence amounts to eight consecutive life sentences plus 60 years. 1. Citing OCGA § 42-9-39 (c)
Appellant acknowledges that he is asking this Court to expand the holdings of the Miller and Montgomery Supreme Court opinions. As noted by this Court in Veal I , those cases read together create a substantive rule that before an LWOP sentence may be imposed on one who was a juvenile at the time the crime was committed, the sentencing court must conduct a hearing to determine if that person is one of the exceptionally rare juveniles for whom such a sentence is appropriate because of "a specific determination that he is irreparably corrupt ." Veal I , supra,
Because the Supreme Court has not expanded its mandate that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment as it applies to juvenile offenders requires a sentencer to consider a juvenile's youth and its attendant characteristics before imposing a sentence other than LWOP, this Court will not do so.
2. Appellant also asserts the new sentence violates the Supreme Court's ban on LWOP sentences for juveniles for non-homicide convictions, as set forth in Graham v. Florida ,
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concur.
OCGA § 42-9-39 (c) states: "When a person receives consecutive life sentences as the result of offenses occurring in the same series of acts and any one of the life sentences is imposed for the crime of murder, such person shall serve consecutive 30 year periods for each such sentence, up to a maximum of 60 years, before being eligible for parole consideration."
Further, taken to its logical conclusion, appellant's position would require the consideration of a convict's life expectancy when any sentence is imposed against any convicted person, even imprisonment for a specific term of years. Appellant acknowledges, for example, that pursuant to his reasoning a sentencing court should be required to consider whether the convict has a terminal illness and is likely to die before the end of the imposed sentence. Pursuant to this reasoning, even in the case of a convicted adult, if a criminal sentence for a term of years is imposed for a conviction that cannot constitutionally be punished by a life sentence, and the imposed sentence would likely mean the convicted defendant would die before release, the sentence would be unlawful. Such a requirement for consideration of life expectancy would be untenable, and would result in shorter sentences, or even no prison sentence at all, based solely upon the convict's age, demographic profile, or health.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- VEAL v. The STATE.
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published