Current Events > Man released after 68 years in prison for crime committed when he was 15

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https://www.inquirer.com/news/joe-ligon-juvenile-lifer-philadelphia-incarceration-release-lifetime-parole-20210211.html

Leaving the State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Montgomery County on Thursday morning, his white hair peeking out below a prison-issue hat, Joe Ligon was accompanied by a dozen large file boxes. Thats about 10 more boxes than regulations normally permit.

Im a special guy, Ligon explained.

Its a privilege earned over 68 years, as the oldest and longest-serving juvenile lifer in the country. Hes been imprisoned since 1953, when he was just 15 years old.

I guess you accumulate a lot of stuff in 68 years, said Bradley Bridge, a lawyer with the Defender Association of Philadelphia whos represented Ligon since 2006. Having taken on the mission of getting Ligon home first legally, then logistically he had to scramble to fit the materials into his car, commandeering a reporters trunk for the overflow.

Ligon, now 83, received his life term for taking part in a spree of robbery and assaults in which two people died. Ligon admits participating in the crime with a group of drunk teens but denies killing anyone.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that automatic life terms for kids are cruel and unusual, he was one of more than 500 Pennsylvania prisoners all resentenced to terms contingent on lifetime parole.

But Ligon, resentenced to 35 years to life in 2017, rejected the very idea of parole after nearly seven decades in prison.

I like to be free, he said. With parole, you got to see the parole people every so often. You cant leave the city without permission from parole. Thats part of freedom for me.

Other prisoners tried to coax him out into the free world. John Pace, a former juvenile lifer and now a reentry coordinator for the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP), recalled a fruitless visit to the prison with a group of other ex-lifers. If you want to fight, fight it when you get out, he counseled Ligon at the time.

But Ligon refused to apply for parole, let alone take any required programs.

So Bridge fought three more years to get him released with time served and won a victory that has given hope to hundreds of other juvenile lifers still on parole.

In federal court, he argued that Ligons mandatory maximum sentence of life was 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. The Philadelphia District Attorneys Office agreed. And, on Nov. 13, 2020, Anita B. Brody, senior U.S. District judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ordered Ligon resentenced or released within 90 days.

That was no sad day for me, Ligon said. He only wished his mother, his father, and his brother could have been there to see it.

The 90-day clock expired Thursday. So, for the first time, Ligon left behind prison walls and visited the public defenders Center City office, where files on his case take up an entire room. He seemed unfazed as he placed his face close to a high-tech temperature scanner, then cruised by elevator up to the eighth floor.

Peering out the window, he saw a city transformed.

Im looking at all the tall buildings, he said. This is all new to me. This never existed.

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But Ligon, resentenced to 35 years to life in 2017, rejected the very idea of PS4 looks great parole after nearly seven decades in prison.

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SMAP- posted...

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Probably an ad that appeared in the middle of the article unless the TC has some weird gimmick.

Don't do da crime if you can't do da time
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Oh man. What a life for someone to live. It barely starts and you get thrown in a box for longer than a lot of people live.

SMAP- posted...

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What? It doesnt say that and the post hasnt been edited.

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I can't even imagine what the culture shock must be

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