XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, sac.general   
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   From: nigger-lovers@disney.com   
      
   Joe Ligon, the nation’s oldest and longest-serving juvenile   
   offender, has been released from prison after serving 68 years   
   of a life sentence, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.   
      
   Ligon pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in   
   Philadelphia in 1953, when he was 15 years old. He was part of   
   an assault and robbery spree that killed two people but has   
   denied killing anyone himself and said he was scapegoated as an   
   out-of-towner. However, he was sentenced to life without parole.   
      
   A 2012 Supreme Court decision found sentences of life without   
   the possibility of parole for juveniles to be cruel and unusual   
   punishment, but Pennsylvania did not apply the ruling   
   retroactively until a subsequent 2016 decision by the high court   
   ordered states to do so.   
      
   In 2017, Ligon was resentenced to 35 years to life with   
   immediate eligibility for parole, but he didn't apply to be   
   released on principle.   
      
   “I like to be free,” Ligon said at the time. “With parole, you   
   got to see the parole people every so often. You can’t leave the   
   city without permission from parole. That’s part of freedom for   
   me.”   
      
   When Ligon refused parole, his attorney, Bradley Bridge of the   
   Defender Association of Philadelphia, argued his mandatory   
   maximum life sentence had been unconstitutional.   
      
   “The constitution requires that the entire sentence, both the   
   minimum and maximum terms imposed on a juvenile, be   
   individualized — and a one size fits all cannot pass   
   constitutional muster,” he wrote in federal court, according to   
   The Philadelphia Inquirer.   
      
   Anita Brody, senior U.S. district judge for the Eastern District   
   of Pennsylvania, ordered Ligon be resentenced or released within   
   90 days in November, a period that expired Thursday.   
      
   “I’m looking at all the tall buildings,” Ligon said Thursday as   
   he took in the unfamiliar sights of the city upon release. “This   
   is all new to me. This never existed.”   
      
   https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/538833-nations-   
   oldest-juvenile-offender-released-after-68-years?rl=1   
        
      
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