Lost for Life Page #6

I was made to be

who I am," then I have to have

the same amount of empathy for

them and what they went through

that made them into who they were.

A decision just

released by the U.S. Supreme

Court will change

the way juveniles are sentenced.

There was another ruling that you

need to know about. The

justices ruled five to four that

life without parole sentences

are cruel and unusual

punishment for juvenile

offenders. That's anyone under

the age of 18 regardless of the

crime.

The ruling could

affect as many as 38 states

where laws allow life without

parole for teenagers.

At first when they came on they

just said, "Life without parole

for juveniles has been

abolished." I was so happy

because they didn't put any

caveats in there, no

stipulations. And, man, I was

jumping up and down in the cell

I was so happy.

What the court held by five to

four, Justice Anthony Kennedy

joining the four liberals said

that, "It is unconstitutional

for a law to say

a juvenile convicted of

murder must automatically serve

life without parole. The judge

or jury has to make a separate

determination about

whether the individual should

serve life without parole.

And the next

hour when the news came

on again they threw in the

little limitations. Mandatory

life without parole was

unconstitutional and that they

could still gives kids

life without parole. And it

tempered us a little bit but

that's the ruling that we

expected all along. So, we're

still very happy and we still

actually can tangibly see

light at the end of the tunnel.

Judges will

have to face that question of,

"Are there children

who should be in the adult

system for long years,

or for life? And how do we

identify which children those are?"

They have, on the one

hand, a terrible

offense, victims whose lives

will never be the same, the

community that's harmed by

feeling unsafe when a crime of

this sort occurs.

And on the other

hand, a young person who is

childish, damaged by trauma,

whose never been arrested

before, who's never had

counseling services before, and

is amenable to rehabilitation.

From my experience, the number

of kids who cannot be

rehabilitated is very small.

On January 8, 2011, one of the

sergeants in my cell house

called me into his

office and spun his

computer around and said,

"Do you recognize this name?" It

was the governor's website and I

said, "Yeah, it's my name."

He said, "What does it say?"

I said, "It says Sean Taylor...

sentenced in 1990 to life for

first-degree murder has had his

sentence commuted...

to parole."

I started crying immediately.

Went back in the cell house

and hugged all my friends and

everybody.

Everybody just was standing

around crying...

praising God.

Everything feels beautiful out

here, man, but I never try to

lose focus. I say, "Even though

I've been blessed and

I'm enjoying my life out here,

there's still always the

mission to make sure that I can

do whatever I can do, whatever I

can do...

whatever I can do to stop

some young person

from doing something like

I did." Messing up their

lives and messing up someone

else's life and causing

grief to someone else's family,

I'll do whatever I

have to do to stop that.

I fully believe,

100%, that I'm going to get

out, especially

with the Supreme Court case that

came down. But the

pragmatist in me, about half of

me, says it's going to be a

couple more years, ten more

years, who knows how long, but

it's going to be a while.

Hello?

Hello.

- Hi.

- Hey, Dad.

I knew that the

truth was terrible.

And I was really

scared of coming clean.

Years after this happened,

we were visiting and I was

like, "No, I am not innocent,

Mom. I had a part in this.

I knew it was going to happen

and I went along with it."

And she was devastated,

of course. She had to accept

that her son had a part in this

horrible crime.

I have personally seen my dad

cry two times, and the first

time was when I won a

scholarship for a science

project I did and the other time

was when he was on the stand in

court and he was crying

because I hurt him so much.

Your parents, they love

you so much and then you show

them this by destroying them.

I got special parents.

I just wish I could go

back in time.

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