Bunch v. Smith, No. 10-3426 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this Case
In 2001 Bunch, then age 16, committed robbery, kidnapping, and repeated rape of a 22-year-old female university student. He was sentenced to consecutive terms totaling 89 years. Ohio courts rejected appeals. The district court denied a petition for habeas corpus. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, rejecting an argument that the trial court violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments by sentencing him to the functional equivalent of life without parole for crimes he committed as a juvenile. Even if the 2010 Supreme Court holding, Graham v. Florida, that “[t]he Constitution prohibits the imposition of a life without parole sentence on a juvenile offender who did not commit homicide” applies on collateral review, it does not clearly establish that consecutive, fixed-term sentences for juveniles who have committed multiple nonhomicide offenses are unconstitutional when they amount to the practical equivalent of life without parole.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.