Monday, 15 February 2021_The oldest juvenile offender in the United States has been released after 68 years.
Arrested at the age of 15 in 1953 over two counts of first-degree murder in Philadelphia, Joe Ligon was freed after some changes in the law.
“I’m looking at all the tall buildings,” Ligon said. “This is all new to me. This never existed.”
He was re-sentenced to 35 years in 2017 after the US Supreme Court ruled against automatic life terms for children.
Ligon still refused to accept parole after all these years in prison.
“I like to be free,” he said at the time. “With parole, you got to see the parole people every so often. You can’t leave the city without permission from parole. That’s part of freedom for me.”
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ligon “believes he was scapegoated as the new kid, the outsider,” when he was arrested decades ago.
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