1. Does imposition of a mandatory sentence of forty years on a juvenile convicted of a homicide -a sentence imposed pursuant to a statutory scheme that categorically precludes consideration of the offender's juvenile characteristics and other mitigating circumstances -violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments' prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments?

2. Does the imposition of an increased statutory mandatory minimum violate the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, if the fact that increased the statutory mandatory minimum was found solely by a sentencing judge, rather than by a jury or admitted by a defendant?

Whether the imposition of a mandatory 40-year sentence on a juvenile convicted of homicide violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments' prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments