Three Marylanders sentenced while children to life with parole – Nathaniel Foster, Calvin McNeill, and Kenneth Tucker – and the Maryland Restorative Justice Initiative, an organization that works for the rights of people who are incarcerated, with support from the ACLU of Maryland, filed suit in federal district court in Baltimore. The suit argues that in Maryland parole exists in name only, denying people who are serving "life with parole" sentences who have clearly demonstrated their rehabilitation any meaningful opportunity for release, as required by the Eighth Amendment.
Although the plaintiffs are serving "life with parole" sentences, the suit argues that in practice Maryland never paroles lifers, instead operating a system of executive clemency in which commutation of life sentences is extraordinarily rare. In this way, Maryland converts "life with parole" sentences into de facto "life without parole" sentences that constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
