Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-9646.pdf
Page Number: 50

4 

MILLER v. ALABAMA 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

that all offenders convicted of specified homicide offenses,
whether  juveniles  or  not,  deserve  a  sentence  of  life  in 
prison  without  the  possibility  of  parole.  Nothing  in  our
Constitution authorizes this Court to supplant that choice. 

II 
To  invalidate  mandatory  life-without-parole  sentences
for  juveniles,  the  Court  also  relies  on  its  cases  “prohib-
it[ing]  mandatory  imposition  of  capital  punishment.” 
Ante,  at  7.    The  Court  reasons  that,  because  Graham 
compared  juvenile  life-without-parole  sentences  to  the
death penalty, the “distinctive set of legal rules” that this
Court  has  imposed  in  the  capital  punishment  context,
including the requirement of individualized sentencing, is
“relevant”  here.  Ante,  at  12–13.    But  even  accepting  an 
analogy  between  capital  and  juvenile  life-without-parole
sentences,  this  Court’s  cases  prohibiting  mandatory  capi-
tal  sentencing  schemes  have  no  basis  in  the  original  un-
derstanding  of  the  Eighth  Amendment,  and,  thus,  cannot 
justify  a  prohibition  of  sentencing  schemes  that  mandate 
life-without-parole sentences for juveniles. 

A 
In a line of cases following Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 
238 (1972) (per curiam), this Court prohibited the manda-
tory  imposition  of  the  death  penalty.  See  Woodson  v. 
North  Carolina,  428  U. S.  280  (1976)  (plurality  opinion); 
Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U. S. 325 (1976) (same); Sumner 
v. Shuman, 483 U. S. 66 (1987).  Furman first announced 
the  principle  that  States  may  not  permit  sentencers  to 
exercise  unguided  discretion  in  imposing  the  death  pen- 
alty.  See generally 408 U. S. 238.  In response to Furman, 
many  States  passed  new  laws  that  made  the  death  pen- 
alty  mandatory  following  conviction  of  specified  crimes,
thereby  eliminating  the  offending  discretion.    See  Gregg 
v.  Georgia,  428  U. S.  153,  180–181  (1976)  (joint  opinion