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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Getting Life Without Parole, At 17

Joe Donovan, age 37, has been behind bars since he was sentenced to life without parole at age 17. (Deb Becker/Here & Now)

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule next month on whether to ban life without parole for minors convicted of murder.

The cases center on two 14-year-olds — one in Alabama, the other in Arkansas.

The decision could have a ripple effect across the country, affecting more than 2,000 prisoners, if the Supreme Court decides to ban life without parole for all juvenile offenders.

One of those prisoners is 37-year-old Joe Donovan of Massachusetts, who has been behind bars for 20 years.

Guest:

  • Joe Donovan

This segment was produced by Deb Becker.

Other stories from Tuesday's show

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

  • commentator wayland

    very sad; seems like a perversion of justice

  • J__o__h__n

    Please stop recycling stories that we already heard.  http://www.wbur.org/2012/04/12/donovan-life-sentence

  • Terra

    Horrifying—–our prisons, miscarriage of “justice” stories like this aside…have become for-profit concentration camps…and “legal methods” of blanket ethnic cleansing…keep up the stories…and REPEAT them all you want & can, till changes are accomplished.  Thank you. 

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