Ark. Code Ann. § 5-4-108 (2026)
Sentencing for person who committed an offense when he or she was less than 18 years of age
A defendant shall not be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for an offense if the defendant was less than eighteen (18) years of age at the time the offense was committed.
History. Acts 2017, No. 539, § 4.
A.C.R.C. Notes. Acts 2017, No. 539, § 1, provided: “Title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Fair Sentencing of Minors Act of 2017’.”
Acts 2017, No. 539, § 2, provided: “Legislative intent.
“(a)(1) The General Assembly acknowledges and recognizes that minors are constitutionally different from adults and that these differences must be taken into account when minors are sentenced for adult crimes.
“(2) As the United States Supreme Court quoted in Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012), ‘only a relatively small proportion of adolescents’ who engage in illegal activity ‘develop entrenched patterns of problem behavior,’ and ‘developments in psychology and brain science continue to show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds,’ including ‘parts of the brain involved in behavior control’.
“(3) Minors are more vulnerable to negative influences and outside pressures, including from their family and peers, and they have limited control over their own environment and lack the ability to extricate themselves from horrific, crime-producing settings.
“(4) The United States Supreme Court has emphasized through its cases in Miller, Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), and Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), that ‘the distinctive attributes of youth diminish the penological justifications for imposing the harshest sentences on juvenile offenders, even when they commit terrible crimes”.
“(5) Youthfulness both lessens a juvenile's moral culpability and enhances the prospect that, as a youth matures into an adult and neurological development occurs, these individuals can become contributing members of society.
“(b) In the wake of these United States Supreme Court decisions and the emerging juvenile brain and behavioral development science, several states, including Texas, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Alaska, West Virginia, Colorado, Hawaii, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachussets, and the District of Columbia, have eliminated the sentence of life without parole for minors.
“(c) It is the intent of the General Assembly to eliminate life without parole as a sentencing option for minors and to create more age-appropriate sentencing standards in compliance with the United States Constitution for minors who commit serious crimes.”