A Charleston Circuit Court judge has denied Christopher Pittman's request for a reduction in sentence.
Judge Daniel Pieper ruled Tuesday that there wasn't sufficient evidence that sentencing a 15-year-old to a 30-year prison term is "cruel and unusual punishment" barred under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Pittman was found guilty in February after a two-week jury trial of two counts of murder in the shotgun shootings of his grandparents, Joe Frank and Joy Pittman. The Chester County couple was shot dead by their grandson Nov. 28, 2001, when Pittman was 12.
Pittman had a birthday in the past week, and is now 16-years-old.
Pieper wrote that there wasn't sufficient evidence to "suggest the sentence is constitutionally infirm or lacks a constitutional basis."
He said Pittman's defense attorneys were asking him to throw out existing law and write a new law, in a sense acting as a "super legislature."
Pieper's ruling said the final papers in another appeal, which asks for a new trial for Pittman, were filed March 31, and are still under review.
The ruling was issued late Tuesday afternoon, as the News & Reporter was going to press.
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