Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release

The New York Times, August 15, 2023: Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release

“Though Philadelphia had already sentenced many young people to life without parole, under Ms. Abraham’s watch — and with the city’s murder rate remaining high throughout the ‘90s — the number getting that sentence in Philadelphia rose quickly. For some, it may have been a deal worth taking to avoid the death penalty.

“Mr. Drinks was tried as an adult and initially sentenced to death. In 1993, his sentence was reduced to life without parole. (His then-girlfriend, who received the same sentence, remains in prison.)

“He most likely would have died in prison, but while Mr. Drinks was behind bars, a national effort began to rethink the culpability of young people in the eyes of the law. In the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty for minors, leaning heavily on new scientific research that showed — ‘as any parent knows,’ Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote — that young people are not like adults. They are more impulsive, reckless and susceptible to persuasion.

“The court did not question that minors should pay for committing heinous crimes, but in banning the most severe punishment, it affirmed the possibility ‘that a minor’s character deficiencies will be reformed.’ Real change, Justice Kennedy suggested, was possible.

“Mr. Drinks had been in prison for more than a decade when the Roper decision came out. Then one day, a Philadelphia lawyer named Bradley Bridge traveled to the upstate Pennsylvania prison where Mr. Drinks was locked up, and explained to him and the other men who had been given life sentences as boys what the ruling could mean for them.

“Striking down the death penalty for minors was only the beginning, Mr. Bridge said. Soon, he predicted, the court would apply the same logic to outlaw mandatory life sentences for juveniles too, potentially giving Mr. Drinks and others serving such sentences a shot at freedom — and giving the city of Philadelphia a chance to rewrite its legacy.”

Additional reading:

The Detroit Free Press, May 22, 2023: They thought they’d die in prison. Now they’re juvenile justice advocates on a mission

The Marshall Project, January 30, 2020: What’s the Meaning of “Life” When Sentencing Kids?

Equal Justice Initiative, January 2008: Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison