Under present law, a person sentenced to life imprisonment for first degree murder, on or after July 1, 1995, may achieve release eligibility after serving 51 years, or 60 years minus up to nine years for sentence reduction credits. There is no release eligibility for a defendant receiving a sentence of imprisonment for life without possibility of parole for first degree murder or aggravated rape of a child.
Under this bill, a person who is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or life imprisonment for a first degree murder committed when the person was a minor on or after July 1, 2021, would achieve release eligibility after serving 30 years. The release eligibility date for any other offense sentenced to run consecutively or concurrently to the first degree murder sentence remains the same, but will not operate to extend the release eligibility date for the first degree murder offense beyond 30 years. A defendant is entitled to earn and retain sentence credits under this bill, but the credits do not make the defendant eligible for release prior to the service of 30 full calendar years.

Statutes affected:
Current Version: 40-35-501(h), 40-35-501