North Carolina Court Upholds Sentence of Life Without Parole for Man Who Killed Officers as a Juvenile

A North Carolina judge wasn’t careless while sentencing a man to life in prison without parole for the murders of two law enforcement officers during a traffic stop, crimes he participated in as a juvenile, the state Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday.

The three-judge panel unanimously upheld the latest sentence for Kevin Salvador Golphin. He and his older brother, Tilmon, were initially sentenced to death for crimes including the 1997 murders of state Trooper Ed Lowry and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hathcock.

Kevin Golphin was 17 years and nine months old at the time of the crimes. His sentence was changed to mandatory life without parole after a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined that death sentences for juveniles violated the U.S. Constitution’s provision against cruel and unusual punishment.

Read the source article at AP News