With the Michigan Supreme Court recently ruling that mandatory sentences of life without parole are unconstitutional for convicted killers who committed first-degree murder when they were 19 or 20, a state lawmaker said the decision is dangerous to the public — and that she’s drafting legislation to redirect funding to help prosecutors keep those convicts locked up.

Meanwhile, an Oakland University associate professor and criminal justice program director is in full support of the high court’s decision, and said she’d like to see it apply to those who were 24 years old or younger when they committed the crime.

The 5-2 Supreme Court decision (with Justices Elizabeth Clement and Brian Zahra dissenting) is retroactive and, moving forward, will also affect sentences for those in that age group. The court made a similar decision for 18-year-olds in 2022, extending the law that had only applied to juveniles. Supporters cite scientific studies which conclude the brain isn’t fully developed until the mid-20s, and that younger people are more impulsive and easily influenced by peers — and are more likely to be rehabilitated during imprisonment.

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said it has a prelimonce the list is finalized, the prosecutor’s office said.

‘Reckless, threat to safety’

In response to the ruling, Republican Ann Bolliin, House appropriations chair, said she’ll be working on proposing a new law to scale back the budgets of the state Supreme Court and State Court Administrators Office budgets. In turn, she said, more funding would be distributed to local prosecutors tasked with the job of reviewing the cases of 582 murders statewide now eligible for a chance to one day be released from prison. The Supreme Court’s ruling gives prosecutors 180 days to review the cases and file motions to keep the original sentence intact; if a motion isn’t filed by then, a resentencing hearing will be held, Bollin stated in a news release. This, she added, “(opens) the door for early release and even immediate release in some cases.”

“This reckless and retroactive decision by the Michigan Supreme Court threatens the safety of our communities and retraumatizes the families of murder victims,” Bollin stated in the release. “These are adults who made the conscious choice to take another person’s life. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced appropriately. Now, the court wants to give them a do-over.”

And, she added, resentencing forces communities “to relive horrific crimes.”

‘Inhumane, waste of human resources’

In contrast, OU associate professor Wendi Johnson told the Oakland Press that she believes a lot of those in prison with no chance of parole for a crime they committed while in their teens or early twenties deserve a second chance to live the rest of their lives outside prison walls.

“It doesn’t really make a lot of sense that people who commit crimes when young are locked up forever. It doesn’t make for good policy, it’s very expensive and, many would argue, is inhumane and a waste of human resources as well,” she said.

“Should some be locked up forever? Yes,” Johnson said. But others — especially those who show genuine remorse and have used their time in prison to better themselves through reflection, education and other efforts — should have the opportunity for a lesser sentence than life in prison, she said.

Younger killers often don’t have the “forethought or intent” — or the understanding of the consequences of their actions — to pay such a hefty price, Johnson said.

As for victims’ families possibly being “retraumatized” during a resentencing hearing, Bollin said they have the choice of not attending, while some “simply choose to let go and move on with their lives.”

There are variables, she added. “Some believe in ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ — and that’s understandable…but for most of the (younger killers), they got caught up in something that escalated and went totally over their head,” Johnson said. “They have remorse and regret, they wish they could turn back time, (and) they aren’t that stupid kid anymore.”