Brum students in fight 'to save life'.

Byline: Victoria Farncombe

A TEAM of seven law students from Birmingham City University are working on the defence brief of an American teenager who was condemned to die in jail.

Joe Sullivan, who is mentally and physically disabled, has spent the last 20 years behind bars after being convicted of rape in the state of Florida when he was 13.

Professor of American Public Law at the university, Julian Killingley, said the punishment of life imprisonment without possibility of parole would only be given in Britain in very rare cases.

He is leading the team of Birmingham students in writing a brief that will be heard by the US Supreme Court on July 23.

Their argument is that imposing such a harsh sentence on a child is "cruel and unusual" and contrary to the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution.

"In Britain we can rarely give a child a life sentence. Even for adults they're incredibly rare," said Prof Killingley.

"There are literally thousands of people who have committed murders in our prisons but there's only about 32 people who have been given a whole life tariff.

"Rose West, serial killers, the worst of the worst. It's a very unusual sentence. It's a kind of death sentence. It's saying you will die in jail."

The team is working in conjunction with Professors Constance de la Vega and Michelle Leighton, of the University Of San Francisco School Of Law, the Bar of England and Wales Human Rights Committee and the Law Society's International Human Rights Committee.

Prof Killingley explained as the English legal profession is the one most closely related to the American profession, its views hold particular weight on matters of English common law and international law.

He said: "The issue with this case is not whether he did it or not but whether life imprisonment without possibility of parole is an appropriate punishment for a 13-year-old child committing such a crime.

"The students on my team will gain invaluable experience by being involved in a real life case and this will help them when they leave university and enter the legal profession."

A study by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has documented 73 cases where children 13 and 14 years of age have been condemned to death in prison in the United States.

CAPTION(S):

Professor Julian Killingley from Birmingham City University School of Law is battling to help US prisoner Joe Sullivan (inset).