Court gets it right on sentencing

When it comes to criminal sentencing, juveniles are different.

That's the basic conclusion reached by a majority of Iowa Supreme Court justices last week when they ruled that mandatory minimum sentences for young offenders are unconstitutional. The state court ruling comes after a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings staking out differences between adult and juvenile punishment, including a 2012 ruling striking down life without parole for juvenile offenders.

Iowa's ruling plows new ground in rejecting any mandatory sentences for juveniles. That goes too far in the minds of three dissenting Iowa justices. But we agree with Chief Justice Mark Cady. 'Mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles are simply too punitive for what we know about juveniles,” he wrote in the majority opinion.

The court's ruling does not mean that courts cannot sentence juveniles to severe punishment for heinous crimes when circumstances demand it. What it does mean is that those circumstances must be considered. And that's not possible when our laws mandate rigid sentences, rather than granting courts discretion to consider all the facts and decide what punishment actually fits the crime.

In the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 decision on life sentences, it ruled that courts must consider an offender's maturity, education, home life and other factors. It makes legal sense that those same individual circumstances be considered in all juvenile cases.

This isn't a soft-on-crime ruling. It's a long overdue pushback against an era of mandatory sentences approved by lawmakers hoping to appear tough on crime, while giving too little consideration of how those laws would affect the state's ability to provide justice and punish offenders.

Our one-size-fits-all sentencing trend has led to numerous unintended consequences. The court has now tackled a major one. We hope this ruling prompts state lawmakers to rethink adult mandatory sentencing structures.

Lawmakers should also take this opportunity to think hard about the state's juvenile justice system. With the court's ruling, and the continuing saga of Iowa's shuttered juvenile home for girls in Toledo, Statehouse leaders have a clear opportunity to address serious problems with how Iowa handles and rehabilitates its youngest offenders.

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