By BRENT KENDALL

WASHINGTON—A deeply divided Supreme Court on Monday struck down mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole in two cases involving 14-year-olds convicted of homicide, the third in a series of decisions finding that tough sentences for juveniles violate the Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments."
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Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the majority in the 5-4 opinion, said that prior high-court rulings "make clear that a judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty for juveniles," those under the age of 18.
Justice Kagan said the sentences were unconstitutional because state laws mandated that each juvenile defendant "die in prison even if a judge or a jury would have thought that his youth and its attendant characteristics, along with the nature of his crime, made a lesser sentence … more appropriate."
The court was considering two cases, from Alabama and Arkansas.
The ruling follows the court's 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons that declared juvenile executions a violation of the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In a 2010 ruling, the court held it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide to life without possibility of parole.
Joining Justice Kagan's opinion were Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the two earlier opinions, and liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.
The court's four most conservative justices—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito—dissented from the ruling. They said decisions about the appropriate prison sentences for teenage murderers should be made by lawmakers, not by the courts.
"Perhaps science and policy suggest society should show greater mercy to young killers, giving them a greater chance to reform themselves at the risk that they will kill again," Chief Justice Roberts wrote. "But that is not our decision to make."
Write to Brent Kendall at [email protected]