Joe Ligon

Last updated

Joseph Ligon
BornMay 3, 1938 (age 85)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Known forLongest serving US prisoner convicted as a minor (served prison sentence from aged 15-82)
Criminal statusReleased
Conviction(s) First degree murder (2 counts)
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without parole; later reduced
Details
CountryUnited States
State(s)Pennsylvania
Imprisoned at Montgomery County Jail

Joseph Ligon (born May 3, 1938) is an American convicted murderer and 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.

Contents

Early life

Ligon was born on May 3, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. [1] He 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. [2] Aged 13 he moved back to Philadelphia with his family. [3]

Conviction for murder

On February 20, 1953, while living in Philadelphia, Ligon was part of an alcohol-fueled violent spree by five teenagers that resulted in the murders of Charles Pitts and Jackson Hamm. 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. [3]

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 and they were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. [3] [4]

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. [3] [5]

Ligon and his accomplices were offered clemency in the early 1970s. Ligon was the only one to refuse the offer, rejecting it since he would have to be on parole. [5]

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. [6]

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. [4] In 2017, Ligon was re-sentenced 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. [7]

Release

Ligon was released on February 11, 2021, from State Correctional Institution - Phoenix [8] 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". [3] After being released, Ligon moved into a West Philadelphia rowhouse and stated that he intended to gain employment as a cleaner, attend the Bible Way Baptist Church, get a gym membership, and visit his sister and nieces and nephews in New Jersey. [9]

Upon his release, Ligon became America's longest serving juvenile lifer, having served 68 years behind bars. [3] [9] The Vera Institute of Justice estimated it had cost the state of Pennsylvania nearly three million dollars ($44,000/year) to incarcerate him. [6]

Related Research Articles

Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted criminals are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Crimes that warrant life imprisonment are extremely serious and usually violent. Examples of these crimes are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, Illegal drug trade, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated Property damage, arson, hate crime, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide.

In England and Wales, life imprisonment is a sentence that lasts until the death of the prisoner, although in most cases the prisoner will be eligible for early release after a minimum term set by the judge. In exceptional cases a judge may impose a "whole life order", meaning that the offender is never considered for parole, although they may still be released on compassionate grounds at the discretion of the Home Secretary. Whole life orders are usually imposed for aggravated murder, and can only be imposed where the offender was at least 21 years old at the time of the offence being committed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Tyler</span>

Gary Tyler, from St. Rose, Louisiana, is an African-American man who is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana. He was convicted of the October 7, 1974 shooting death of a white 13-year-old boy and the wounding of another, on a day of violent protests by whites against black students at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. He was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder at age 17 by an all-white jury; he received the mandatory death sentence for that crime, according to state law. When he entered Louisiana State Prison (Angola), he was the youngest person on death row.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Honeck</span> American murderer

Richard Honeck was an American murderer who served one of the longest custodial sentences ever to terminate in a prisoner's release in American criminal history. Jailed in November 1899 for the murder of a former school friend, Honeck was paroled from Southern Illinois Penitentiary in Chester, Illinois on 20 December 1963, having completed 64 years and one month of his life sentence, and served a total of 23,418 days in jail.

Martin Leach, is a convicted rapist and double murderer in Australia, and has been described as one of, if not the Northern Territory's worst, killer.

In the United States, life imprisonment is the most severe punishment provided by law in states with no valid capital punishment statute, and second-most in those with a valid statute. According to a 2013 study, 1 of every 2 000 inhabitants of the U.S. were imprisoned for life as of 2012.

Scott Allen Hain was the last person executed in the United States for crimes committed as a juvenile. Hain was executed by Oklahoma for a double murder–kidnapping he committed when he was 17 years old.

In Germany, life imprisonment has an indeterminate length and is the most severe punishment that can be imposed. A person sentenced to life imprisonment may normally apply for parole after having served 15 years. If the parole court rejects the application, the inmate may reapply after a court determined blocking period no longer than two years. If the court has determined a "severe gravity of guilt" exists, parole is delayed for a non-specific period beyond 15 years.

Life imprisonment in Canada is a criminal sentence for certain offences that lasts for the offender’s life. Parole is possible, but even if paroled, the offender remains under the supervision of Corrections Canada for their lifetime, and can be returned to prison for parole violations.

Sara Jessimy Kruzan is an American activist and survivor of child sex trafficking. In 1995, at the age of 17, she was convicted of the first-degree murder of her trafficker, George Gilbert Howard, who began to groom her for the sex industry at the age of 11. She was initially sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, but was later both paroled and pardoned.

Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Jason Sweeney</span> 2003 murder in Pennsylvania, United States

Jason Keel Sweeney was a construction worker from Fishtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who at the age of 16 was murdered by four teenagers for his paycheck on May 30, 2003. The perpetrators included a girl he was dating and his best friend since childhood. Due to the manner in which Sweeney was murdered, the ages of the teens involved, and the seeming indifference of the perpetrators, the crime received national media coverage.

Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. The ruling applied even to those persons who had committed murder as a juvenile, extending beyond Graham v. Florida (2010), which had ruled juvenile life without parole sentences unconstitutional for crimes excluding murder.

William John O'Meally was an Australian criminal, notorious as the last man to be flogged in Victoria in 1958.

Kristina Joy Fetters was an Iowa woman who was convicted of the murder of her 73-year-old great-aunt, Arlene Klehm, on October 25, 1994, when she was 14 years old. At age 15, Fetters became the youngest woman in Iowa sentenced to life in prison without parole on December 18, 1995. Following the 2012 Supreme Court decision of Miller v. Alabama, which declared mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders to be unconstitutional, Fetters became the first inmate in Iowa to be re-sentenced in November 2013. The following month, she was recommended for compassionate parole due to a prognosis of inoperable stage-four breast cancer, and she was released to a hospice care center in Des Moines, Iowa in December 2013. She succumbed to her cancer in July 2014, at age 34.

Montgomery v. Louisiana, 577 U.S. 190 (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that its previous ruling in Miller v. Alabama (2012), that a mandatory life sentence without parole should not apply to persons convicted of murder committed as juveniles, should be applied retroactively. This decision potentially affects up to 2,300 cases nationwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Correctional Institution – Phoenix</span> U.S. state prison

The State Correctional Institution – Phoenix is a state prison in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with a Collegeville postal address, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Operated by Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, it was named after the phoenix bird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bobby Bostic</span> American writer

Bobby Bostic is an American writer who was sentenced to a term of 241 years. On December 12, 1995, Bostic, aged 16, along with 18-year-old Donald Hutson robbed a group of people in Missouri at gunpoint, and shortly thereafter robbed and briefly detained a woman in her car. The pair were caught later that day. Hutson was offered a plea deal and accepted 30 years in prison. On the advice of family, Bostic declined the same offer and elected to go to trial. He was given a sentence of 241 years by Judge Evelyn Baker, making him eligible for parole when he was 112. Bostic was serving the longest sentence in Missouri given to a juvenile for non-homicide offenses.

References

  1. ↑ https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/Report/CpDocketSheet?docketNumber=CP-51-CR-0311352-1953&dnh=cc7XA93C9fbppitULIhoAQ%3D%3D
  2. ↑ "Sentenced To Life At Age 15, 82-Year-Old Man Tastes Freedom Once Again". Oxygen Official Site. February 16, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Natarajan, Swaminathan; Potts, Lauren (May 8, 2021). "Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years in prison". BBC . Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Nation's oldest, longest-serving juvenile lifer is released from prison at age 83". ABA Journal .
  5. 1 2 Law, Heather; Simko-Bednarski, Evan (February 17, 2021). "After 68 years in prison, America's oldest juvenile lifer was released". CNN . Retrieved March 1, 2024.
  6. 1 2 "After 68 years in prison, "juvenile lifer" Joe Ligon is free and hopes for a "better future"". cbsnews.com.
  7. ↑ Glanton, Dahleen. "Column: Joe Ligon, America's longest-serving juvenile lifer, has a message for young Black offenders". chicagotribune.com.
  8. ↑ Heller, Karen. "He's looking forward to a better everything". washingtonpost.com. Washington Post. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  9. 1 2 Heller, Karen (February 19, 2021). "He was locked up at age 15. Almost seven decades later, he's reentering an unfamiliar world". Washington Post. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.