Why are Michigan’s prosecutors ignoring the Supreme Court?

Across the state, they are flouting the justices’ clear message in two recent decisions. The first ruling, in 2012, banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles in homicide cases. While the court did not prohibit life-without-parole sentences for juveniles completely, it has said that punishment should be used only in the rarest cases — when the defendant “exhibits such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible.”

In January, the justices clarified that this rule applies not just going forward but to every inmate already serving such a sentence, or about 2,500 people nationwide.

Michigan prisons house 363 of these inmates. All but a very few should be resentenced to shorter terms, with the possibility of parole. Yet prosecutors are seeking to keep more than half of them locked up forever.

In Wayne County, which includes Detroit and is responsible for about 150 such inmates, the county prosecutor, Kym Worthy, wants to resentence at least 60 of these people to life without parole. In Oakland County, outside Detroit, the county prosecutor, Jessica Cooper, is seeking life without parole for 44 of the 49 currently serving life without parole. These cases involved “heinous, heinous” crimes, Ms. Cooper said.