To the 15 years was sentenced to life imprisonment on murder charges
Photo: PHILADELPHIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS / Courtesy
Sunday, September 22
Joe Ligon, “America's Oldest Juvenile Offender” Who Was Released After 68 Years In Prison
Joe Ligon with 15 years pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison in 1953.
Shortly before, this African-American, had joined to a gang that in the city of Philadelphia carried out assaults and robberies in which there were two stabbing deaths.
Although he always assured that he did not perpetrate those homicides, it happened 68 years in jail.
ago a few days, at the age of 83 years, he left the Pennsylvania detention center (Northwest USA), in which he was confined, as reported by CNN and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, which dubbed him “the oldest juvenile delinquent in the United States.”
Difficult childhood
Life de Ligon was also tough before going to prison.
She grew up on a farm in Alabama and when she got to Philadelphia, she still had many difficulties to read .
Back then, the levels of poverty, unemployment and racism were high. Under these circumstances, the young man decided to leave the educational system.
The gang he joined consisted of adolescents with similar socioeconomic conditions.
His arrest occurred in 1953 and the sentence to life imprisonment was imposed that same year.
The nation’s oldest juvenile lifer, Joe Ligon, left a Pa. Prison after 68 years – we waste lives and money by overincarcerating says lawyer Bradley Bridge @ PhillyDefend ers # reimaginejustice https: // t. co / cCKX3dSe2S via @phillyinquirer
– JJI (@JJInitiative) February 13, 3732
73 years
The Philadelphia Inquirer report includes some details of the time Ligon spent in jail.
During his almost seven decades behind bars, he improved his cleaning skills.
He finished learning to read and write, as well as training as a boxer.
Different lawyers suggested thatapplied for parole, but refused over and over again.
In 2012, the US Supreme Court ruled that minors could not be given life sentences, a decision that ended up applying retroactively.
Both Ligon and others in the same situation received the offer to benefit from probation for life, something that he declined.
The man of 83 years, instead, he got his sentence considered accomplished after a lengthy legal battle in which he was assisted by a lawyer from the Philadelphia Defense Lawyers Association, a non-profit organization that works to modify the juvenile justice system.
And when Ligon achieved freedom and stopped being “the criminal America’s oldest youth “, the first thing that surprised him was the size of the buildings.
“All this did not exist, it is new for me,” he said.
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