Alabama man asks federal court to consider whether sentencing a juvenile to life in prison is 'cruel and unusual punishment'

ATLANTA, Georgia — A federal appeals court is considering whether sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without parole violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
An Alabama man who was convicted of killing a hitchhiker when he was 17 asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today to overturn the sentence.
Kenneth Loggins was convicted in December 1995 of participating with three other people in the murder of Vickie Deblieux. He was originally sentenced to die, but it was reduced to life without parole after the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that a juvenile cannot be put to death.
Now his attorneys are asking the courts to expand a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that held that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses.