The League of Iowa
Human & Civil Rights Agencies

The lawyer for a 31-year-old woman serving life in prison for a murder she committed as a teen called Tuesday on the Iowa Supreme Court to treat children differently under the state's sentencing laws. "It is our position that a judgment that there is no distinction between a child of 14 and an adult" is improper, said attorney Brian Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiatives, an Alabama-based juvenile-advocate group. "To say to any child of 14 that 'you're only fit to die in prison' is cruel and unusual." A state lawyer countered that some crimes deserve an absolute punishment regardless of age.

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