Skip to content
LPBN-Icon-v1
EvidenceProf Blog
Editor: Colin Miller

Cyntoia Brown & the “51-To-Life” Project: Vermont

By Colin Miller

This is the forty-fifth in a series of posts on the “51-To-Life” Project. In Tennessee, if a juvenile is convicted of first-degree murder, there are two sentencing options: (1) life without the possibility of parole; or (2) life with the possibility of parole, with that possibility only existing after the juvenile has been incarcerated for 51 years. In this post, I will explain why Vermont treats juvenile homicide offenders better than Tennessee.  

Vermont Statutes Annotated Title 13, Section 7045

states that

A court shall not sentence a person to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if the person was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense.

Therefore, Vermont does not allow for a juvenile life without parole sentence. As a result, Vermont treats juvenile homicide offenders better than Tennessee.

-CM