High court declines Oklahoma case where resentencing ordered

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court won’t get involved in a case from Oklahoma in which a federal appeals court set aside the life prison sentence of an inmate who committed violent crimes as a juvenile.

The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t take up the case of Keighton Budder. Budder was convicted of rape and other charges and received three consecutive life sentences plus 20 years. Under Oklahoma law he’d have had to serve almost 132 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit said earlier this year that the sentence violates a Supreme Court ruling that forbids life-without-parole sentences for juvenile non-homicide offenders.

The appeals court sent the case back to Oklahoma courts for Budder to be resentenced.