EUNICE – Chad L. Young, serving life in prison for the murder of his parents and a brother in Eunice, is undergoing psychiatric evaluation prior to seeking to have his sentence reconsidered.

Young is one of about 2,000 youthful offenders potentially affected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year that mandatory sentencing rules requiring defendants under age 18 to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole is cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional.

The court split 5-4 in its ruling on Alabama and Arkansas cases, with the majority saying a judge or jury “must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty for juveniles.”

The court previously ruled the death penalty for juvenile offenders unconstitutional in 2005 and decided in 2010 that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole for a non-homicide crime violated the Eighth Amendment.

Attorney Ed Lopez has filed a motion seeking a resentencing for Young. Court documents indicate the evaluation of Young is expected to be completed by early April.

Young was 17 when arrested and charged with the murders, which occurred on Nov. 29 or 30, 1988.

His father, Lucas, was shot to death; his mother Rebecca and brother Chris were stabbed and their house on US 190 East burned.

A juvenile killer in an equally notorious Eunice case has not filed re-sentencing motions.

Andrew J. Hundley was 15 when, according to a jury, he killed Terri Pitre, 14, on July 23, 1997. He was convicted of second-degree murder on March 4, 1999.

Hundley at trial denied killing the girl near the former site of the Mowata Store, pointing the finger a someone else.

Jurors, however, believed the state’s case, buttressed by a confession from Hundley after, in his father’s presence according to court documents, he had waived the right to silence and to having a lawyer present.