In United States v. Briones, --- F.3d ---, No. 16-10150 (9th Cir. 2018), a divided panel affirmed the defendant's life sentence based on a murder in which he participated when he was 17.
The dissent agreed with much of the majority's reasoning, but compellingly argued the district court failed to account for the Supreme Court's clear direction that "the Eighth Amendment bars life-without-parole sentences for all but the rarest of juvenile offenders, those whose crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility.” Montgomery v. Louisiana, 136 S. Ct. 718, 734 (2016) (citing Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012)).
