Whether courts must consider juvenile conduct as a mitigating sentencing factor for an ongoing offense

QUESTION PRESENTED Steve L. Wright, Jr. was convicted of fourteen federal offenses. The most severe portion of Mr. Wright's offenses occured when he was a juvenile. Count 1, which charged conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base and other controlled substances, began when Mr. Wright was a juvenile, but continued past his 18th birthday. Mr. Wright was also convicted of five firearm offenses, three of which occured when Mr. Wright was a juvenile. The district court sentenced Mr. Wright to life imprisonment plus 110 years. The Supreme Cout subsequently held that sentencing a juvenile to Life without parole violates the Eighth Amendment. Mr. Wright then filed a § 2255 motion asserting that because the. conspiracy for which he was convicted began when he was a juvenile, and because 110 years. is essentially a life without parole sentence, he is entitled to be resentenced. The Eighth Circuit held that Mr. Wright was seeking relief based on a non-retroactive procedural rule, and he was not entitled to relief because the conspiracy extended past his 18th birthday. The Eighth Circuit also declined to decide whether a termof-years sentence can effectively be a life without parole sentence. The questions raised by this petition are: 1. Whether, in imposing senténoe for an ongoing offense, courts must consider juvenile conduct as a mitigating sentencing factor? 2. Whether, in imposing sentence for a juvenile, a term-of-years sentence that deprives the juvenile of any meaningful opportunity for release, would violate the Eighth Amendment? 1