Ramiro’s Unconstitutional Sentence Has Been Overturned!
Dear Supporters,
I am thrilled to share that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned our client Ramiro Martinez’s unconstitutional sentence of mandatory juvenile life without parole!
Over a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that mandatory life without parole sentences for children are unconstitutional. Ramiro was sentenced to mandatory life without parole for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old. Ramiro has been serving this unconstitutional sentence for over ten years because he couldn’t afford a lawyer to represent him—until TDS finally stepped into his case and filed an appeal on his behalf.
Ramiro’s case is exemplary of a particularly insidious but common form of injustice—people in Texas prisons serving deeply flawed or unconstitutional sentences because they lack advocates to fight for their constitutional rights. Without lawyers, whatever rights they have on paper risk being rendered meaningless. That’s why, at Texas Defender Service, we fight for justice for incarcerated Texans.
In Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that mandatory sentences of life without parole for children are cruel and unusual. The Supreme Court explained that children are more vulnerable to peer pressure and less able to separate themselves from negative influences than adults, particularly if those children grow up in traumatic environments. Moreover, children’s brains are malleable and developing. With time and maturity, children have a tremendous capacity to grow and change.
Now Ramiro has a parole-eligible sentence and will have access to rehabilitative programs from which he was previously barred, programs that could help him prepare to return to society.
We are thrilled that Ramiro’s unconstitutional sentence has been overturned, but we still have more work to do. We are advocating for other clients who were sentenced to mandatory life without parole when they were children and are still serving these unconstitutional sentences in Texas prisons. Until everyone who is eligible for Miller relief in Texas is resentenced, the fight continues.
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
