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discretion to impose a sentence of life without parole. Juvenile offenders convicted of first-degree murder are also allowed to petition for a sentence modification after serving 30 years.
• Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead signed a bill in February specifying that juveniles convicted of murder would be eligible for parole after serving 25 years in prison. Last fall, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation giving judges options other than life in prison when sentencing juveniles in murder cases. Other states with new juvenile sentencing laws include Arkansas, California, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures this summer.
• In Connecticut, where Aponte is among about 200 inmates who could be affected by the high court's ruling, a proposal that would have allowed parole hearings for teen offenders who've served at least 12 years or 60 percent of their sentence died this year. There are plans to resurrect the bill next year.
• But the prospect of possibly shortening sentences has been met with mixed reaction from relatives of crime victims.
• "If you can't believe a judge's final decision in a courtroom, who can you believe?" asked John Cluny, whose wife and teenage son were shot to death in 1993 by his son's 15-year-old friend, Michael Bernier. Bernier was sentenced to 60 years for the murders. Cluny calls him "a cold-blooded killer."
• Despite good behavior in prison and years of reflection and maturity, Cluny questions giving such killers another chance at freedom.
• "You're in prison for what you did, not for what you've become," he said.
• At a recent hearing on Connecticut's bill, John J. Horan, whose son was killed in the robbery that Aponte was convicted in, sat silently, listening to Aponte's mother speak about how her son has become a man any mother would be proud of. He has matured, sought to improve himself by reading and earned his associate's degree and certification as a nurse's aide to work in the prison infirmary. He's also a hospice volunteer who tends to dying inmates, she said, adding that Aponte has tried to raise his own son from prison, sending money and playing a positive role in the boy's life.
• After listening to her, Horan said Aponte's cousin, gunman Jason Casiano, who was 16 years old at the time of the robbery, doesn't deserve a parole hearing, but he was more willing to buy such an argument for Aponte.
• "They should loosen up on the nonviolent offenders," said Horan, 82. "It was just a terribly bad move by Aponte."
• But Horan is skeptical about some of the reasoning behind the Supreme Court

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