Casiano v. Commissioner of Correction

Summary

The court held that the juvenile-sentencing rule requiring individualized consideration of youth before imposing a life-without-parole sentence applies retroactively on collateral review under Connecticut law. It further held that a fifty-year sentence without parole imposed on a juvenile homicide offender is the functional equivalent of life imprisonment and therefore falls within that rule, even though the sentence was not mandatory. The court reversed the habeas court’s summary judgment for the Commissioner and remanded for further proceedings.