By Lisa Soronen

Life in prison without parole cases don't usually have happy endings. This is not true, however, for George Toca. 

In Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in 2012 that states may not mandate that juvenile offenders be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The question in Toca v. Louisiana was whether Miller is retroactive, whether it should apply to those convicted before the case was decided. 

Toca has been dismissed as George Toca was released from prison after pleading guilty to two counts of armed robbery in exchange for his murder conviction being vacated.

Toca was 17 when his best friend was accidentally shot during a botched armed robbery in 1984. Under Louisiana’s mandatory sentencing scheme, Toca was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder.

The Louisiana Supreme Court held that Miller does not apply retroactively because it does not set forth a new substantive rule of criminal constitutional procedure. A few other lower courts have reached the same conclusion reasoning that Miller isn’t a substantive rule because it does not bar all life sentences without parole for children.

The court is likely to accept another case raising the same issue that may be decided as early as next term.

Lisa Soronen is executive director of the State and Local Legal Center. She writes frequently on U.S. Supreme Court cases for the NCSL Blog.