Outset in a sentence5/16/2023 ![]() When detectives interviewed Graham, he denied involvement in the crimes. He tried to flee on foot but was apprehended. Graham continued at a high speed but crashed into a telephone pole. As Graham drove away, a police sergeant signaled him to stop. Graham, who had borrowed his father’s car, drove Bailey and Lawrence to the hospital and left them there. The State further alleged that Graham, Bailey, and Lawrence, later the same evening, attempted a second robbery, during which Bailey was shot. Ricaded Rodriguez and his friend inside a closet. Before leaving, Graham and his accomplices bar. For the next 30 minutes, the three held Rodriguez and another man, a friend of Rodriguez, at gunpoint while they ransacked the home searching for money. ![]() Graham, followed by Bailey and Lawrence, forcibly entered the home and held a pistol to Rodriguez’s chest. that night, Graham, Bailey, and Lawrence knocked on the door of the home where Carlos Rodriguez lived. His two accomplices were Meigo Bailey and Kirkland Lawrence, both 20-year-old men. The State’s case was as follows: Earlier that evening, Graham participated in a home invasion robbery. Less than 6 months later, on the night of December 2, 2004, Graham again was arrested. Graham was required to spend the first 12 months of his probation in the county jail, but he received credit for the time he had served awaiting trial, and was released on June 25, 2004. The court withheld adjudication of guilt as to both charges and sentenced Graham to concurrent 3-year terms of probation. The trial court accepted the plea agreement. Graham said “I made a promise to God and myself that if I get a second chance, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get to the. After reciting “this is my first and last time getting in trouble,” he continued “I’ve decided to turn my life around.” App. Graham wrote a letter to the trial court. On December 18, 2003, Graham pleaded guilty to both charges under a plea agreement. The charges against Graham were armed burglary with assault or battery, a first-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, §§810.02(1)(b), (2)(a) (2003) and attempted armed-robbery, a second-degree felony carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment, §§812.13(2)(b), 777.04(1), (4)(a), 775.082(3)(c). Graham’s prosecutor elected to charge Graham as an adult. Under Florida law, it is within a prosecutor’s discretion whether to charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults or juveniles for most felony crimes. Graham was arrested for the robbery attempt. The restaurant manager required stitches for his head injury. When the manager started yelling at the assailant and Graham, the two youths ran out and escaped in a car driven by the third accomplice. Graham’s masked accomplice twice struck the restaurant manager in the back of the head with a metal bar. Graham and another youth, wearing masks, entered through the unlocked door. One youth, who worked at the restaurant, left the back door unlocked just before closing time. In July 2003, when Graham was age 16, he and three other school-age youths attempted to rob a barbeque restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. He began drinking alcohol and using tobacco at age 9 and smoked marijuana at age 13. Graham was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in elementary school. ![]() Graham’s parents were addicted to crack cocaine, and their drug use persisted in his early years. ![]() Petitioner challenges the sentence under theĮighth Amendment ’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, made applicable to the States by the Due Process Clause of the The sentence was imposed by the State of Florida. The issue before the Court is whether the Constitution permits a juvenile offender to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for a nonhomicide crime. ![]()
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