The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court eliminated life without parole sentencing for juveniles on Tuesday after deciding they were unconstitutional, Boston.com reported.
"Given the unique characteristics of juvenile offenders, they should be afforded, in appropriate circumstances, the opportunity to be considered for parole suitability," the court wrote in a decision released Tuesday morning.
"In the present circumstances, the imposition of a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the commission of murder in the first degree by a juvenile under the age of eighteen is disproportionate not with respect to the offense itself, but with regard to the particular offender."
The court added that a judge cannot decide if a juvenile defendant was "irretrievably depraved" because their brain is not fully developed yet.
"Simply put, because the brain of a juvenile is not fully developed, either structurally or functionally, by the age of eighteen, a judge cannot find with confidence that a particular offender, at that point in time, is irretrievably depraved. Therefore, it follows that the judge cannot ascertain, with any reasonable degree of certainty, whether imposition of this most severe punishment is warranted," the decision said.
The state's highest court also looked to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that suggests "children are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of sentencing" and said a life sentence without parole for a juvenile is strikingly similar, in many respects, to the death penalty."
The court's ruling came after the case of Gregory Diatchenko, who has been in prison for three decades following the murder he committed when he was 17. He will immediately be considered for parole.
Additionally, both Diatchenko's attorney and the Suffolk district attorney's office agreed that there are 61 other inmates in Massachusetts in the same position.
Jennifer Turner, a researcher for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), called the ruling a "huge win."
