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SALT LAKE CITY — A University of Utah professor and his students have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the prison sentence given to a Utah man after he raped and killed a youth counselor at age 17.
Now 27, Robert Cameron Houston pleaded guilty in 2006 to aggravated murder of 22-year-old Raechale Elton, a youth counselor who had given Houston a ride from a Clearfield group home for troubled teens. In exchange for his plea, rape charges against Houston were dropped.
Houston is the only juvenile in state history to be sentenced to life without parole, a sentence upheld by the Utah Supreme Court earlier this year.
U. professor Michael Teter and four students from the S.J. Quinney College of Law filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the high court Friday, according to a news release from the university.
Citing Utah law, the petition argues "the state of Utah believes that Robert 'Cameron' Houston was not mature enough in 2006 to decide whether to get a tattoo … but insists that a decision he made that year should cost him his freedom forever."
Teter noted Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently ruled it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to the death penalty or, in non-homicide cases, to sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole. The court has also ruled against mandatory sentencing schemes in state courts for juveniles in homicide cases.
"There is a gap in the court's cases about whether it is always unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life without parole. This petition seeks to have the court address that question," Teter said in the release.
If the court upholds life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted in homicide cases, Teter and his students have asked the justices to consider whether a jury must decide, based on brain development, whether the juvenile is "irreparably corrupt."
Houston was originally charged with capital murder in Elton's death, but the death penalty could not be a consideration because he was 17 at the time.
Facing a fierce snowstorm, Elton had offered Houston a ride from the Clearfield group home to a nearby independent living center on Feb. 15, 2006. When they arrived, Houston pulled out a knife and raped and stabbed the woman.
Arguing before the Utah Supreme Court, Houston's attorney called the sentence "cruel and unusual punishment." Prosecutors, however, noted the heinous nature of the crime, saying that Houston not only tried to break Elton's neck but he slit her throat and tried to rip out her trachea because she would not stop screaming.
