Joe Ligon

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Joseph Ligon
Born1937 or 1938 (aged 84-85)
America
Known forLongest serving prisoner convicted as a minor (served prison sentence from aged 15-83)
Criminal statusReleased after 68 years in February 2021
Conviction(s)Murder x 2
Criminal penaltyLife Imprisonment without Parole
Details
CountryUnited States
State(s)Pennsylvania

Joseph Ligon (born 1937 or 1938) is an American former prisoner. He was America's longest-serving prisoner who was convicted to a life sentence as a minor. At 15, he was found guilty of murder by association and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After the US Supreme Court had ruled in 2016 that all juvenile life sentences without parole were retroactively unconstitutional, he was released in 2021, having spent 68 years in jail.

Early life[]

Ligon grew up on a farm in Alabama and had a difficult early life. He dropped out of school in third or fourth grade without being able to read or write.[1] At 13, he moved to Philadelphia with his family.[2]

Conviction for murder[]

On February 20, 1953, while living in Philadelphia, Ligon was part of an alcohol-fuelled violent spree by five teenagers that resulted in two murders. He met up with two teenagers he knew casually and they came across two other teenagers, previously unknown to him, who were drinking wine. They began robbing people to try to buy more alcohol.[2]

After his arrest he claimed he was not permitted legal representation or family visitation and signed confessions put in front of him by the police; he was 15 years old. Ligon and the other defendants had a one-day trial that was called a degree of guilt hearing. He was convicted of two murders[3] and sentenced to life in prison without parole.[2]

At the time of his trial, Ligon admitted to stabbing one person who survived the attack. He has affirmed his guilt for the stabbing and expressed remorse subsequently. He has always denied being responsible for either murder.[2][4]

Parole[]

Bradley Bridge, his attorney for 15 years, said that Ligon had been found guilty by association and that if he were tried today, he would more likely be convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 or 10 years. Bridge said giving an adult sentence to a child is inherently wrong.[5]

In 2012, life sentences for juveniles without the possibility of parole were ruled to be unconstitutional in the US Supreme Court. In 2016, the Supreme Court said that the 2012 ruling was retroactive.[3] In 2017, Ligon was resentenced to 35 years in jail and became eligible for parole due to the time already served. Ligon felt his sentence had always been unconstitutional, so he returned to court to argue against the parole. The federal court agreed and in February 2021 he was released without parole.[6]

Release[]

Ligon was released on February 11, 2021, from Montgomery County jail. When Bridge went to the jail to collect him, he remarked Ligon was completely calm—he didn't have an "oh my god" reaction and there was no drama. A month later, Ligon remarked about his release: "It was like being born all over again. Because everything was new to me – just about everything".[2]

Upon his release, Ligon became America's longest serving juvenile lifer, having served 68 years behind bars.[2][7] The Vera Institute of Justice estimated it cost the state of Pennsylvania nearly three million dollars ($44,000/year) to incarcerate him.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ "Sentenced To Life At Age 15, 82-Year-Old Man Tastes Freedom Once Again". Oxygen Official Site. February 16, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years in prison". BBC. May 9, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Nation's oldest, longest-serving juvenile lifer is released from prison at age 83". ABA Journal.
  4. ^ Law, Heather; Simko-Bednarski, Evan. "After 68 years in prison, America's oldest juvenile lifer was released". CNN.
  5. ^ a b "After 68 years in prison, "juvenile lifer" Joe Ligon is free and hopes for a "better future"". cbsnews.com.
  6. ^ Glanton, Dahleen. "Column: Joe Ligon, America's longest-serving juvenile lifer, has a message for young Black offenders". chicagotribune.com.
  7. ^ Heller, Karen (February 19, 2021). "Joe Ligon was locked up at age 15. Almost seven decades later, he' reentering an unfamiliar world". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
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