The People of the State of Colorado, Petitioner v. Michael Quinn Tate, Respondent; Tenarro Banks, Petitioner v. The…

Summary

The court held that mandatory life without parole sentences imposed on Tate and Banks for juvenile class 1 felony offenses violated the Eighth Amendment rule requiring individualized consideration of youth and attendant characteristics. It vacated those sentences and remanded for individualized sentencing, providing that life with parole eligibility after forty years applies if life without parole is found unwarranted; it rejected severance and revival as the basis for that remedy. The court also held that the new rule does not apply retroactively to Jensen's final conviction on collateral review because it is procedural and not a watershed rule. Chief Justice Rice and Justice Coats disagreed with aspects of the remedy, and Justice Rice would have applied severance; Justice Coats would have treated the rule as an individualized proportionality requirement.