After this court decided Gordon, the Supreme Court resolved a split of authority and held that Miller's prohibition on mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders is retroactive to cases on collateral review. Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718 (2016). The Court noted that giving Miller retroactive effect "does not require States to relitigate sentences . . . in every case where a juvenile offender received mandatory life without parole." Id. at 736. Rather, the Court indicated that states could "remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by resentencing them." Id.
B. Acts of the Arkansas General Assembly
Since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Miller, the Arkansas General Assembly has twice revised the punishment authorized for juveniles convicted of capital murder. In 2013, the legislature passed Act 1490, which provided for two alternative sentences for a juvenile convicted of that offense: life imprisonment without parole or life with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of twenty-eight years' imprisonment. See Act of Apr. 22, 2013, No. 1490, §§ 2–3, 2013 Ark. Acts 6587, 6588–89. Act 1490 did not apply retroactively. Id. § 1, 2013 Ark. Acts at 6588.[1]
- ↑ Act 1490 contained no emergency clause or specified effective date. The 2013 regular session of the General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 17, 2013. Op. Ark. Att'y Gen. No. 049 (2013). Therefore, Act 1490 became effective on August 16, 2013. See Reeves v. State, 374 Ark. 415, 421 n.2, 288 S.W.3d 577, 582 n.2 (2008) (stating that pursuant to amendment 7 of the Arkansas Constitution, acts of the General Assembly that do not carry an emergency clause or specified effective date become effective on the ninety-first day after adjournment of the legislative session at which they were enacted).
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