At its 2022 annual meeting in August, the American Bar Association (ABA) joined the American Law Institute (ALI) in calling for the abolition of natural life sentences, writes Rory Fleming in an op-ed for Filter.
The ABA now officially recommends “federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to enact legislation permitting courts to hear petitions that allow de novo hearings to take a ‘second look’ at criminal sentences where individuals have been incarcerated for ten years.”
Fleming argues that national support for this recommendation could effectively replace the natural life sentence with life with the possibility of parole as the harshest non-capital punishment in the nation.
Skeptical of both leaving this decision to parole boards and of clemency as a structural solution to overly harsh sentencing, both the ABA and ALI point to “second look” hearings, in a process that would be governed by judges.
Fleming points out that the “second look” concept holds the most promise in jurisdictions where the judges tasked with deciding on the petitions were trial-level judges who are not elected, including judges in the federal system.
See also: Majority Favors Life Without Parole Over Executions, The Crime Report, March 23, 2018