SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DECISION1
A judge is the only trier. It means that he needs to focus on all proof and learn the rules of
proof and agree on every question of proof. A judge will take multiple decisions as the case is
continually contested by both sides. The judges of the Supreme Court do not necessarily disclose
their decisions. Rather, they talk about cases individually and often seek to force each other to
adopt a reasonable approach. This paper mainly focuses on the discussion of how the case
of Mathena vs. Malvo would be decided by me if I would be a justice of the Supreme Court.
Mathena vs. Malvo is considered to be a landmark case in the US, which has a great
impact on the juvenile justice system of the US. In this case, 10 people were killed in a sniper
attack of 2002 by Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammad which took place in Virginia,
Maryland and the District of Columbia. In 2009, for committing the same offense, the death
penalty had been delivered to Muhammad and as the age of Malvo was just 17 at the time of that
incident, thus the judges in Virginia and Maryland sentenced him to life imprisonment. However,
based on two recent judgments delivered by the US Supreme Court, this decision given by
Maryland and Virginia was challenged by Malvo (Liptak, 2019).
In the case of Miller vs. Alabama [2012] 567 US 460, it has been ruled by the Court that
the punishment of ‘obligatory life imprisonment without parole’ is considered to be ‘cruel and
arbitrary’ and for this reason, it has been prohibited by the Eighth Amendment for those
individuals who are under the age of 18 years at the time of committing their offenses.
On the other hand, after four years of Miller’s case, in Montgomery vs. Louisiana [2016]
577 U.S. case it has been stated by the court that its decision in Miller was a ‘clear procedural
rule of Constitutional law’ and thus would be ‘retroactively applicable’ in cases of direct
assessments after Miller has been decided on.

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