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Joseph Ligon, considered the longest serving prisoner since a young age in the United States, was released last Thursday at the age of 83 and finally left the Phoenix Correctional Center in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Ligon spent 68 years in prison, starting in 1953, when he entered prison at the age of 15. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in robberies and armed robberies that resulted in two deaths and six stab wounds. The man admitted to participating in the crime with a group of drunken teenagers, but denied killing any of the dead.
In 2017, the sentence was moderate, reducing the minimum time he had to serve to 35 years, after the United States Supreme Court ruled that automatic life sentences for children were cruelty. The move allowed many inmates to apply for parole, but Ligon was in no rush to do so as the move meant continuing to be monitored by authorities after his release from prison.
“I like being free,” Ligon told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“With probation, you have to see the supervisors from time to time. You cannot leave town without the permission of the probation officers. It is part of my freedom,” he noted.
Additionally, Ligon refused to apply for parole and continued to fight for his full release with attorney Bradley Bridge, who has represented him since 2006. Since the 2017 ruling, Bridge has spent three more years trying to get his client released after taking into account the years of his sentence, and finally won.
The lawyer argued that Ligon’s life sentence was unconstitutional, as the sentence for a minor must be individualized according to each particular case. In November 2020, Pennsylvania Eastern District Judge Anita B. Brody ordered Ligon to be re-sentenced or released within 90 days.
This term expired on February 11 and the man was eventually released from prison. His only regrets are that his mother, father and brother weren’t there to see him free.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, RT, Twitter.
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