The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office has
conceded that a judge resentencing "juvenile lifers" may impose a
minimum sentence lower than the 35 years that the office has been offering in
such cases.
The possibility was raised as the office
agreed to move ahead with resentencing for Kempis Songster, 44, who is serving
life without parole for a murder he committed in 1987 at age 15.
An openly frustrated U.S. District Judge Timothy J.
Savage--who ordered a new sentence for Songster four years ago, and again in
August with a 120-day deadline--said the office's policy of offering all
inmates the same deal for a new sentence was inconsistent with a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that put back into play about 300 murder cases in Philadelphia
involving juveniles.
Savage's Aug. 17 order had urged resentencings in
which a judge would have discretion to impose "individualized,
proportionate sentences," take into consideration an inmate's
rehabilitation, and impose a maximum of life only in "the rarest of
permanently incorrigible" cases.
"Here's the problem that I have," Savage
told Assistant District Attorney Susan Affronti. "If you're
saying you have all these offers out, it seems you're treating all of these
folks the same way - 35 years to life. I don't get that. That to me appears to
show a lack of due diligence, of looking at each case individually. I
understand you want to do this for policy reasons. Maybe because it looks
good."
Songster's case and others are back in the courts as
a consequence of Montgomery v. Louisiana, a U.S. Supreme Court decision in
January that made retroactive the court's ban on automatic life-without-parole
sentences for juveniles. The ruling affects about 2,300 cases nationwide, about
500 of which are in Pennsylvania - including about 300 in Philadelphia.
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