RI Supreme Court orders parole board to consider release of Mario Monteiro in response to ACLU of RI lawsuit

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Mario Monteiro, a man who was convicted at 17 for killing a 31-year-old Providence man, will be sent back before the parole board for consideration of possible release.

In 2021, a law passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 2021, called “Mario’s Law,” was aimed at giving young offenders like him the option for parole.

However, the State was trying to decide whether the law applied to Monteiro.

In 2001, Monteiro was given two sentences.

He was only given a life sentence for one of his sentences, but not both.

Today, the Rhode Island Supreme Court today ruled that Monteiro and other similarly situated teenagers and young adults are eligible for parole consideration for release to the community after serving twenty years.

In 2021, according to a release, the State took the position that the statute did not apply to people like Monteiro who are serving more than one sentence and that Monteiro, who had already served more than 20 years in prison, should be required to serve another fifteen years before he could be considered for parole.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the state for the unlawful incarceration of juvenile offenders.

According to the release, the ACLU argued that individuals serving a life sentence were already eligible for parole after 20 years without the passage of Mario’s Law.

“We are very pleased with the Court’s decision. Science supports the position that juveniles and young adults do not have the same impulse control that adults do. Accordingly, if they can prove they are rehabilitated, it makes sense to parole these now adult men and women to the community,” said an attorney for the ACLU in a statement.