"My mother was a violent alcoholic. she used me as a punching bag so I ran away."
For more than a decade I have interviewed more than 1,000 kids in 35 states. What of these kids who were sentenced to long sentences and JLWOP, life sentences without parole? These kids become adults who become geriatric. These are the people I have interviewed for the past year.
These are their stories. There are more than 2,000 people — juveniles serving life without parole all over the country. These are some of their voices. These are their faces.
This is a series by Richard Ross that will run every other Thursday.
How is Florida handling the Supreme Court’s ruling of juveniles not being sentenced to life except for extreme cases? Are they not applying this to those that were sentenced prior to 2015? How can we help these young people?
Please help. My son was sentenced in 1995 and at a 35C hearing it was testified by the chief investigator that they had no proof that he was even in the area of the crime. There is no one ready to help. Our attorney’s are doing, well almost nothing, since, as we were told years ago ‘we are on the back burner” because we had to become pro-bono after we spent all our money with them. I can’t stand it any longer and we need some help with this. Truly there was no evidence provided at the trial only testimony from others who had been given full immunity and they testified that they did not even know who my son was. He went in about 12 days after his 17th birthday and will turn 40 in January. Now they have move him out of state and we can’t even afford to go to visit from Colorado to Pennsylvania. Judith Cain
This is my second try. Please someone give me something to hang onto.