LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada officials say five inmates convicted of homicide as juveniles have gone free since state lawmakers banned life without parole for minors and allowed those already serving such sentences to make a case for release.
The 2015 law provided parole eligibility to inmates who were juveniles at the time of their crimes, had already served 20 years, and weren't convicted of multiple murders.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles in homicide cases. Last year, after Nevada passed its law, the high court applied its ruling retroactively to those already in prison on such sentences.
State figures show the Nevada law made 24 offenders eligible for sentence reviews. Nineteen are still in prison, including two whose death sentences were converted to life without parole.