DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge is being asked to step in and stop Michigan prosecutors from seeking new no-parole sentences for potentially hundreds of prisoners.
Attorneys say action is needed because there’s a July deadline for prosecutors to disclose whether they’ll again pursue tough sentences for people who were convicted of murder when they were teens — some decades ago.
A request for a restraining order was filed Wednesday.
This latest clash is a result of how Michigan is responding to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that said teens convicted of first-degree murder must be treated differently than adults.
In 2013, federal Judge John Corbett O’Meara said juvenile lifers must be given a parole hearing. The state appealed, and a higher court recently sent the case back to O’Meara for more work.
