The University of Miami School of Law continues its International Law Lecture Series with a discussion of the treatment of juvenile offenders by UM Law Professors Stephen J. Schnably and Bernard Perlmutter on November 10.

The lecture, titled “International Law and the Treatment of Juvenile Offenders:  Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida and Beyond,” will be held in the Law School Library Reading Room, D201, from 12:30 – 1:50 p.m.  Lunch will be provided.

The two cases -- Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida -- will be argued before the Supreme Court on November 9, and involve cases of rape and robbery by a then 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, respectively. If the court determines these sentences are unconstitutional, Joe Sullivan, now 33, and Terrance Graham, now 22, currently serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, could each be granted a new hearing to determine a revised sentence. The ultimate issue regarding these two cases is whether the 8th Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits the imprisonment of a juvenile for life without the possibility of parole as punishment, when the juveniles have not committed murder.

Schnably is an international law scholar who was an attorney engaged primarily in litigation practice and in international arbitration prior to joining the School of Law faculty in 1988.  Perlmutter is the director of the Children and Youth Law Clinic, an in-house clinic at the School of Law.  He teaches classes in Children and the Law, Family Law, Transnational Family Law and New Directions in Lawyering.