Judge will decide if Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley will face life without parole sentence
The so-called Miller hearing for Crumbley will start Thursday and is expected to last several days.
A well wisher kneels to pray at a memorial on the sign of Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021.
A judge will decide this week if school shooter Ethan Crumbley, who killed four classmates and injured several more people at Oxford High School nearly two years ago, should spend the rest of his life in prison.
The so-called Miller hearing for Crumbley will start Thursday and is expected to last several days.
Crumbley pleaded guilty to going on a murderous rampage in November 2021 that left four students dead and seven other people injured. He was 15 at the time.
Read: Former Oxford school officials say Ethan Crumbley should have been sent home before mass shooting
Prosecutors say the crime was so heinous and the effect on the community so traumatic that Crumbley should receive a life sentence without a chance for parole. Oakland County Judge Kwame Rowe is permitting eyewitnesses to the shooting and security video from the scene to be part of the so-called Miller hearing.
The U.S. Supreme Court says it’s unconstitutional for minors to receive mandatory life sentences without parole in their ruling from the 2012 case “Miller v. Alabama.”
The defense counters that Crumbley could be rehabilitated and say his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, ignored his cries for medical help and instead bought him a gun.
James and Jennifer Crumbley face involuntary manslaughter charges, the first time parents in the U.S. are being charged in a mass shooting. They seek to have the charges blocked, though their case is pending before the Michigan Supreme Court.
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