Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Inmate in landmark Supreme Court case denied parole

BATON ROUGE, La. — A 71-year-old Louisiana inmate whose case led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on juvenile-offender sentences has been denied parole more than a half-century after he killed a sheriff's deputy at age 17.

A three-member panel from the state parole board voted 2-1 Monday to keep Henry Montgomery imprisoned. The hearing was his first chance at freedom since his conviction decades ago.

The Supreme Court's January 2016 decision in Montgomery's case opened the door for roughly 2,000 other juvenile offenders to argue for their release after receiving mandatory life-without-parole sentences.

In June, a state judge who resentenced Montgomery to life with the possibility of parole called him a "model prisoner."

Montgomery has served 54 years in prison for fatally shooting East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputy Charles Hurt in 1963.