Page:Harris v. State (2018 Ark. 179).pdf/6

 After this court decided Gordon, the Supreme Court resolved a split of authority and held that Miller&#39;s prohibition on mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders is retroactive to cases on collateral review. Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718 (2016). The Court noted that giving Miller retroactive effect "does not require States to relitigate sentences in every case where a juvenile offender received mandatory life without parole." Id. at 736. Rather, the Court indicated that states could "remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by resentencing them." Id.

B. Acts of the Arkansas General Assembly
Since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Miller, the Arkansas General Assembly has twice revised the punishment authorized for juveniles convicted of capital murder. In 2013, the legislature passed Act 1490, which provided for two alternative sentences for a juvenile convicted of that offense: life imprisonment without parole or life with the possibility of parole after serving a minimum of twenty-eight years' imprisonment. See Act of Apr. 22, 2013, No. 1490, §§ 2–3, 2013 Ark. Acts 6587, 6588–89. Act 1490 did not apply retroactively. Id. § 1, 2013 Ark. Acts at 6588.