A Second Look at Justice: Why Life Without Parole May Violate the Constitution Michigan Helped Build

The 8th Amendment and the “Slow Death”

The U.S. Constitution’s 8th Amendment and Michigan’s Constitution Article I, Section 16 both forbid cruel and unusual punishment. For a long time, that prohibition was understood narrowly — no rack, no whip, no torture. But the Supreme Court in Trop v. Dulles (1958) established something more dynamic: constitutional standards must evolve with our “standards of decency.” Justice is not a static concept.

When we sentence a person to Life Without Parole, we tell them that no matter how much they grow, seek education, or repent, they are worth no more than the worst act they ever committed. Legal scholars and human rights advocates describe LWOP as “the death penalty in slow motion” — a terminal sentence where transformation is irrelevant and the only exit is in a casket. If the law is meant to reflect our highest values, a sentence of permanent hopelessness is difficult to describe as anything other than cruel.

The Science of the Developing Brain

Michigan has already made meaningful strides in acknowledging that “kids are different.” Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama (2012), Michigan recognized that sentencing a 17-year-old to mandatory LWOP is unconstitutional. The reason: the prefrontal cortex — responsible for impulse control, long-term thinking, and judgment — is not finished developing.

But biology does not stop at 18. Science now shows that the human brain continues developing until the mid-20s. In People v. Parks, 510 Mich. 225 (2022), the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that 18-year-olds also cannot be automatically sentenced to LWOP. This ruling creates a logical and moral bridge: if we acknowledge that an 18-year-old has the capacity to change because their brain is still developing, we must ask why that capacity is assumed to vanish at 19, 21, or 30.

Michigan’s Unique Legacy: Finishing the Work of 1847

Michigan has a proud history of humanitarian progress in criminal justice. In 1847, Michigan became the first English-speaking government in the world to abolish the death penalty for ordinary crimes — a decision rooted in the belief that the state should not have the power to permanently take a life in the name of justice. The Death Penalty Information Center documents this as one of the earliest formal abolitions of capital punishment anywhere in the world.

But by keeping LWOP as a standard sentencing tool, Michigan has found a way to accomplish the same thing more slowly. LWOP is the state’s way of saying a life is disposable — the conclusion is the same, only the timeline differs. Ending LWOP would not mean opening prison gates for everyone tomorrow. It would mean giving a parole board and the community the chance to look at a person twenty years later and ask who they are today. That is not weakness. That is the completion of what 1847 began.

A Call to Legislators and the Public

To our lawmakers: the status quo of mass incarceration is a failed experiment. LWOP is an expensive, permanent solution to what is often a temporary human condition — one that drains state budgets providing geriatric care to aging prisoners who no longer pose any meaningful threat to anyone.

To the public: a justice system that offers no path to redemption is not about safety. It is about vengeance. Those are not the same goal, and they do not produce the same outcomes. True justice should be brave enough to look at a person twenty years later and ask who they are now. Michigan was brave enough to take that position on capital punishment in 1847. It is time to apply the same principle to permanent incarceration.