Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Life Sentences for Juveniles in Arizona

Over the dissents of its three liberal members, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would not hear an appeal from a juvenile offender in Arizona who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

As is its custom, the court gave no reasons for turning down the case, which could affect dozens of prisoners.

The case concerns Lonnie Bassett, who was convicted of two murders committed in 2004, when he was 16. Mr. Bassett was riding in the back seat of a car when he shot the driver and a passenger.

When Mr. Bassett was sentenced in 2006, Arizona law did not give the judge the option of sentencing him to anything but life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But a 2012 Supreme Court decision, Miller v. Alabama, rejected mandatory sentences for youths who committed murders before they turned 18. To be constitutional, the court said, state laws must at least allow judges the option of sentencing juvenile offenders to life with the possibility of parole.

Still, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld Mr. Bassett’s sentence last year, saying that unusual features of Arizona’s sentencing law meant it did not fun afoul of the Miller decision.