SEATTLE — The Washington state Supreme Court has overturned the automatic life-without-parole sentences given to two men for murders committed when they were 19 and 20, saying they were too young for such sentences to apply.
The ruling appears to make Washington the first state to ban mandatory life-without-parole terms for offenders who, while over 18 and legally considered adults, might remain in adolescence from a brain-development standpoint.
Kurtis Monschke and Dwayne Bartholomew were convicted in separate cases of aggravated first-degree murder decades ago.
Under Washington law, the only possible punishment at the time was the death penalty or life without release; the state Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 2018.