Page:Harris v. State (2018 Ark. 179).pdf/22

 Jackson and then cured by the General Assembly when it enacted the FSMA and provided a uniform parole-eligibility component for juvenile offenders; and (5) Harris was resentenced.

What Harris has asked us to do, and what the majority has, in fact, done today, is to choose the judicially created response to Miller while ignoring the legislative cure of the statute, which was expressly permitted under Montgomery. I believe that this is the wrong approach, and I would instead remand this case to the circuit court with an instruction to sentence Harris, without a new hearing, to "life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of thirty (30) years' imprisonment." Ark. Code Ann. § 5-10-101(c) (Supp. 2017).

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not highlight that the practical effect of the majority's decision today extends far beyond the case of Mr. Harris. It is estimated that there are over 50 so-called Miller defendants who need to be resentenced. Some with convictions from more than two decades ago. By needlessly ignoring the FSMA, this court has not only opened the flood gates but has also likely opened the prison doors. This decision means that there will now be over 50 individual resentencing hearings throughout the state, many in cases in which key witnesses have either died, retired from their positions in law enforcement and moved away, or are otherwise unavailable. It means that some, if not several, of these convicted murderers could serve as little as 10 years for their crimes and others could be released with a sentence of time served for murders occurring before 2008. It means that the families of the victims will be forced to relive these tragedies