LANCASTER, Pa.–A man serving life in prison has lost his appeal for a lighter sentence in the killing of a Lancaster city store clerk.
The state Superior Court rejected the request on Tuesday from 36-year-old Clarence Laudenberger.
Laudenberger was just 16 years-old in 1996 when he and three other teens robbed a convenience store in Lancaster city.
Prosecutors said his accomplice Aramis Gonzalez III shot and killed the store clerk, Michael Heath. Laudenberger was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life.
Laudenberger lost his appeal citing a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court deemed mandatory life sentences for teen killers “cruel and unusual.” The state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that standard would not apply retroactively. Meaning–Laudenberger’s conviction and sentence won’t change.
In his appeal–he claimed the higher court was wrong in its retroactive ruling. In a three-page opinion, the Superior Court writes it is ““bound by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision.”
Laudenberger is one of 13 inmates sentenced to life for killings committed as juveniles in Lancaster County. So far, all have filed appeals – none have been granted relief.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on retroactivity early next year.