COA 352569 PEOPLE OF MI V JOHN ANTONIO POOLE Opinion
People v Poole (Docket No. 352569) decided January 18, 2024
The State Appellate Defender Office celebrates today’s outcome for our client John Antonio Poole. As an 18-year-old child, Mr. Poole was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Now in his 40s, Mr. Poole has a chance at freedom. Today, the Court of Appeals held that all individuals who were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole as 18-year-olds are entitled to resentencing, regardless of when that sentence was imposed. The mandatory sentence of death in prison for an 18-year-old violates the state constitutional prohibition on cruel or unusual punishment.
More than 250 individuals in Michigan will now have the potential to receive new sentences offering an opportunity for parole. The State Appellate Defender Office is looking forward to representing many of those individuals in their resentencing hearings.
Mr. Poole’s attorney Maya Menlo said: “We are gratified by this decision. Mr. Poole and so many others like him who received unconstitutional life without parole sentences, deserve an opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of rehabilitation.”
Read the court’s decision here
COA 352569 PEOPLE OF MI V JOHN ANTONIO POOLE Opinion 20240118_c352569_158_352569.opn
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