Griffin v. Commissioner of Correction

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment against a habeas petitioner who argued that transferring his case to the regular criminal docket and imposing a forty-year sentence for crimes committed at age fourteen violated the Connecticut Constitution. It held that the statutory changes limiting juvenile transfers did not establish an evolving standard of decency that constitutionally barred all transfers of fourteen-year-olds, and that parole eligibility after twenty-four years made resentencing unnecessary. The court treated parole review as the appropriate avenue for considering the petitioner's later rehabilitation and youth-related circumstances.