The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered a new sentencing proceeding for a Little Rock juvenile who was convicted as an adult of capital murder and ordered to serve life in prison without parole.
The high court on Thursday addressed two such cases in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found juvenile mandatory sentences of life without parole to be unconstitutional.
Lemuel Whiteside was 17 when he was arrested in the 2009 death of James London, who was killed in a robbery.
Justices ordered that Whiteside, now 21, be resentenced on the conviction as a Class Y felony, with prison time of between 10 and 40 years or life.
The court denied Whiteside's request for resentencing on an aggravated robbery conviction for which he got 50 years in prison.