LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a man who’d been resentenced this year for a 1993 Omaha slaying when he was 16.
The court ruled Friday in the case of Douglas Mantich, who originally was convicted of first-degree murder and given an automatic life sentence without parole for the slaying of Henry Thompson.
In January Mantich was resentenced because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled judges must have the option of sentencing juveniles to something other than automatic life terms. He was given 90 years, which he argues was tantamount to a life sentence.
The Nebraska justices said the U.S. court barred only mandatory life sentences in such cases, so whether the 90 years given Miller on resentencing amounts to a de facto life sentence is immaterial.