Isaiah Sweet was a seventeen year old from Iowa when he would murder his Grandparents
According to court documents Isaiah Sweet was a troubled teen whose Grandparents repeatedly tried to get help for him. During the month preceding month his Grandparents would call the police multiple times trying to get help for him but unfortunately the system would fail them
On the day of the murders Isaiah Sweet would grab an automatic rifle and fatally shoot his Grandparents
Isaiah Sweet would plead guilty to the double murder and would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. However the Supreme Court would rule giving juveniles life in prison was unconstitutional so Isaiah would be resentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Isaiah Sweet first parole hearing was in 2020 and it was denied
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Isaiah Sweet Now
Name:
Isaiah Richard Sweet
Offender Number:
6859998
Sex:
M
Birth Date:
02/07/1995
Location:
Iowa State Penitentiary
Offense:
MURDER 1ST DEGREE
TDD/SDD *:
LIFE
Commitment Date:
03/12/2014
Recall Date:
07/05/2025
Isaiah Sweet Case
An Iowa man who pleaded guilty to murdering his grandparents as a teenager and won a landmark state Supreme Court case that prohibited life without parole for juveniles will remain behind bars.
Three Iowa Board of Parole members reviewed Isaiah R. Sweet’s file Thursday and found that he has made “a fairly good start” in his four years in prison by earning a career readiness certificate and completing some rehabilitative programming. But the board agreed with the Department of Corrections, which recommended Sweet not be released.
“I think more time would definitely be needed for him to make the kind of changes we would need to see before we would ever consider paroling someone,” said Board of Parole member Kathleen Kooiker.
Sweet, now 23, was 17 in 2012 when he murdered his custodial grandparents, Richard and Janet Sweet, with an assault rifle in their Manchester home. He told police that his grandfather was verbally abusive and “made his life a living hell.”
Sweet pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in 2013 and was sentenced the following year to life without parole.
But the Iowa Supreme Court in 2016 ruled that juveniles like Sweet who are convicted of murder cannot be given life sentences with no chance of parole, calling it a cruel and unusual punishment given a growing consensus among neuroscientists that teenagers’ brains have not fully developed, making them more likely to be influenced by peer pressure or impulses.
Sweet was resentenced later that year to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He is being held at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
Thursday’s review was the first time the parole board has considered Sweet’s case. It lasted seven minutes and did not involve an interview with Sweet. His case will be reviewed on an annual basis going forward.
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Isaiah Sweet Parole Denied
An Iowa man who pleaded guilty to murdering his grandparents as a teenager and won a landmark state Supreme Court case that prohibited life without parole for juveniles will remain behind bars.
Three Iowa Board of Parole members reviewed Isaiah R. Sweet’s file Thursday and found that he has made “a fairly good start” in his four years in prison by earning a career readiness certificate and completing some rehabilitative programming. But the board agreed with the Department of Corrections, which recommended Sweet not be released.
“I think more time would definitely be needed for him to make the kind of changes we would need to see before we would ever consider paroling someone,” said Board of Parole member Kathleen Kooiker.
Sweet, now 23, was 17 in 2012 when he murdered his custodial grandparents, Richard and Janet Sweet, with an assault rifle in their Manchester home. He told police that his grandfather was verbally abusive and “made his life a living hell.”
Sweet was resentenced later that year to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He is being held at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.
Thursday’s review was the first time the parole board has considered Sweet’s case. It lasted seven minutes and did not involve an interview with Sweet. His case will be reviewed on an annual basis going forward.
The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision in Sweet’s case is one of a string of state and federal court rulings in recent years that have stopped the use of mandatory punishments for juveniles.
The Iowa Supreme Court in 2014 banned mandatory minimum sentences for all juvenile offenders. Earlier this year, it struck down as unconstitutional a provision of a 2015 law that gave judges the option of sentencing a juvenile killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole, among other punishments. The justices’ decision in that case affirmed their decision in Sweet’s case.
