Why the sentence imposed on Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley is significantCNN
6:41 PM EST Dec 9, 2023
More than two years after Michigan’s deadliest school shooting, a judge imposed a historic sentence – and the harshest possible penalty – for the teenage gunman.
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé Rowe sentenced Ethan Crumbley, 17, on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the November 2021 shooting that left four students dead at Oxford High School. Six other students and a teacher were also wounded in the attack.
Advertisement
It’s a punishment that has become both rare and a point of contention over concerns about sentencing a minor to die in a cell before they reach full maturity.
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, became the
first minor to receive an original sentence of life without the possibility of parole in more than a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 banned mandatory life sentences for juveniles and ruled courts should consider the circumstances of each defendant and their maturity before such punishments are handed down. ...
More