In Michigan, juvenile life without parole is no longer automatic for any crime. A person under 18 convicted of first-degree murder now receives a default prison sentence with a minimum of 25 to 40 years and a maximum of at least 60 years, and life without parole is available only if the prosecutor separately moves for it and convinces the judge, against a presumption favoring a term of years, that the harsher sentence is warranted.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 769.252Michigan Courts. Juvenile Justice Benchbook – Prison Sentences People already serving mandatory JLWOP sentences imposed before the law changed are entitled to resentencing under the same framework.
What Sentence a Juvenile Actually Faces
The governing statute is MCL 769.25. It applies when a defendant was under 18 at the time of an offense that would otherwise carry mandatory life without parole, most commonly first-degree murder. The statute reversed Michigan’s old approach. Life without parole is no longer the automatic outcome; a term of years is.
If the prosecutor does not file a motion seeking life without parole, JLWOP is off the table and the court moves directly to a term-of-years sentence. That sentence carries a minimum between 25 and 40 years and a maximum of at least 60 years.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 769.25 The defendant gets credit for time already served, but not good-time credits, disciplinary credits, or any other sentence-reducing credits. In plain terms, the minimum on the judgment is the earliest realistic parole eligibility date.
When Life Without Parole Is Still Possible
The prosecutor has to affirmatively pursue JLWOP by filing a motion. If they do, the court holds a separate sentencing hearing and must consider the mitigating factors identified by the U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama, along with the defendant’s record while incarcerated and any other relevant circumstances. The judge must state on the record which aggravating and mitigating factors influenced the decision and explain the reasoning.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 769.25
Two Michigan Supreme Court decisions in 2022 shape how that hearing runs. In People v. Taylor, the court established a rebuttable presumption against JLWOP and placed the burden on the prosecution to overcome it by clear and convincing evidence.2Michigan Courts. Juvenile Justice Benchbook – Prison Sentences That standard is stricter than what the U.S. Constitution requires on its own. The decision whether to impose JLWOP is an exercise in judicial discretion rather than a fact-finding exercise, but the default answer under Michigan law is no.
In People v. Boykin, decided the same year, the court held that at any sentencing under MCL 769.25 or 769.25a, the trial court must consider the defendant’s youth and treat it as a mitigating factor.2Michigan Courts. Juvenile Justice Benchbook – Prison Sentences That obligation runs even when JLWOP is off the table. Where inside the 25-to-40-year minimum range the sentence falls has to reflect the defendant’s age at the time of the offense.
Non-Homicide Offenses: JLWOP Is Not an Option
JLWOP applies only to homicide. In Graham v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court held that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole for any non-homicide offense violates the Eighth Amendment.3Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010) A juvenile in Michigan convicted of armed robbery, criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, or any similar offense short of homicide cannot receive a life-without-parole sentence, no matter how serious the facts.
Resentencing for People Already Serving Mandatory JLWOP
Before 2012, Michigan juveniles convicted of first-degree murder received automatic life without parole. When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama that year, those mandatory sentences became constitutionally suspect, and in 2016 Montgomery v. Louisiana made the rule retroactive. Michigan then had roughly 356 people serving juvenile life without parole, one of the largest such populations in the country.
MCL 769.25a is the mechanism for undoing those old sentences. Prosecutors were required to identify all affected defendants within 30 days of Montgomery becoming final and to file motions seeking to reimpose JLWOP within 180 days in any case they wanted to pursue. If the prosecutor missed the deadline or chose not to seek JLWOP, the court imposes a term-of-years sentence with the same 25-to-40-year minimum and 60-year maximum used for new cases. If the prosecutor did seek JLWOP, the resentencing hearing runs on the same rules as an original sentencing under MCL 769.25, with the Miller factors, the defendant’s institutional record, and any other relevant evidence all in play. Victims retain the right to appear and give an oral impact statement.4Michigan Courts. Juvenile LWOP Resentencing – Collateral Cases
Where Resentencing Stands
Progress has been slow. A 2022 assessment by the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth reported roughly 273 resentencings completed out of the initial 356 cases, 154 people released, and about 97 still serving JLWOP. Prosecutors initially sought to reimpose JLWOP in about 60 percent of resentencing cases. The current totals have moved since that count, but the backlog stretched years past what many expected, with some individuals waiting more than six years after Montgomery for a hearing.
On appeal, the recurring issues are how the sentencing judge handled mitigation and who carried the burden of proof. Defense attorneys have argued that some courts treated factors like a difficult home environment or developmental immaturity as reasons to fear future dangerousness rather than as reasons to reduce culpability, which inverts what Miller requires. Burden-of-proof disputes were common before Taylor resolved the question in 2022; cases sentenced under the earlier, inconsistent approach continue to generate appeals.2Michigan Courts. Juvenile Justice Benchbook – Prison Sentences
Pending Efforts to Abolish JLWOP
Michigan lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills to eliminate juvenile life without parole outright. House Bill 4160 in the 2021–2022 session would have abolished JLWOP and capped the maximum juvenile sentence at 60 years. Bipartisan legislation with similar aims was introduced in both chambers in 2023. Neither has been signed into law. Until that changes, the framework above remains what governs: a default term of years, a prosecutor’s motion as the only route to JLWOP, a presumption against it, and mandatory consideration of youth at every sentencing.