Josh Bowers, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, says it is tough for juries even to think beyond the harshest punishments because of mandatory minimums: “Mandatory life without parole is part of a larger push in criminal law in the direction of mandatory minimums. Those who don't like discretion or who worry about discretion tend to like mandatory minimums because they think that mandatory minimums get past the problem with discretion. I don't think that's so. They force discretion away from certain criminal justice actors, judges and juries, and in the ...