Can a juvenile offender be sentenced to life without parole under a system that does not give the sentencing judge discretion to choose a parole-eligible option?

States may not “make life without parole the mandatory (or mandatory minimum) punishment” for juveniles. Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 482 n.9 (2012). While a child homicide offender may be sentenced to life without parole, the sentencer must have “discretion to impose a lesser punishment.” Jones v. Mississippi , 593 U.S. 98, 100 (2021). The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the choice between two versions of life without parole —what Arizona refers to as “natural life” and “life”—satisfied this Court’s precedents. State ex rel. Mitchell v. Cooper (Bassett) , 535 P.3d 3, 1113 (Ariz. 2023). But neither option offered a chance at parole during the relevant period. Arizona abolished parole in 1994. Whether “natural life” or “life,” the mandatory minimum penalty for juveniles convicted of first -degree murder was life without parole. The only difference was clemency. Moreover, several child offenders faced the death penalty. Over three dissents, this Court denied certiorari in Bassett . After ordering a response, this Court more recently denied certiorari in Petrone -Cabanas v. Arizona, No. 24391. In the eight joined cases in this Petition, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that it was bound by the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision in Bassett . While there may have been vehicle problems with Bassett and Petrone -Cabanas , those problems do not exist here. The question presented is: Can a juvenile offender be sentenced to life without parole under a system that does not give the sentencing judge discretion to choose a parole -eligible option?