This court case is completed
Mr. Meippen was sixteen years old in 2006, when he was convicted in an adult court of first-degree assault and sentenced to 19 years—the top end of the adult sentencing range, including a 5-year mandatory minimum for use of a gun. In March 2017, the WA Supreme Court ruled in another case that because of the “mitigating qualities of youth,” when juveniles are sentenced in adult court, the sentencing court must have discretion to reject mandatory minimums like the gun enhancement, and can impose sentences well below the standard range based on youthfulness and other individualized mitigating factors. Our amicus brief supports Mr. Meippen’s case, which argues that this ruling should apply retroactively to allow him and other juveniles given very long adult prison sentences without consideration of youth as a mitigating factor to argue for reduced sentences now.
