Young Brothers Locked Up For Life, at 13 and 15.

Posted on November 11th, 2009 - By Bossip Staff

Categories: Bolitics, News

juvenile-detention.480

Teens Terrance Graham and Joe Sullivan were locked up for life at age 15 and 13. Graham was convicted of a home invasion and Sullivan for rape at 13.

The NY Times has a debate going on. One debater says the following:

Children do not have fully matured levels of judgment or impulse control, and they are uniquely capable of change.

Is life without parole cruel and unusual punishment for juvenile offenders convicted of non-homicide crimes?

  • Tracey

    Lock the parents up!

  • Lisa

    first

  • SOUR GRAPES

    if they were white, they have probation and house arrest. its amazing we make up the minority of the population, but a majority of prison population.

  • love me love me not

    Oh and let us not forget they got sentenced in Florida … Boy they Ain’t playing down here

  • FASHIONISTA

    I dont think they deserved life though…what race were the victims?if it was a black on black crime then the outcome of this situation would be diffrent..

  • Nique

    @Tracey

    I agree with some of your points but the fact still remains that ppl are still going to do what THEY want to do. I know ppl who grew up in a 2 parent household, private school,strict parents AND went to church but still turned out to be ROTTEN. Hold these “kids” accountable for their OWN actions!

  • Tracey

    So these boys were given life without no ID or DNA evidence against them? Wow what kid of promitive racist law are we still living under, wow, astonising!

  • Tracey

    Nique

    @Tracey

    I agree with some of your points but the fact still remains that ppl are still going to do what THEY want to do. I know ppl who grew up in a 2 parent household, private school,strict parents AND went to church but still turned out to be ROTTEN. Hold these “kids” accountable for their OWN actions!
    __________________________________________________

    Well, there is always an exception to every rule, however, and on the whole parents should be held responsible for the children who are terrorising our streets day in and day out.

  • lawd da mercy

    It is sad to see someone pay their entire life for a mistake they made in their youth.

    Judge it on a case by case bases because you don’t want kids to think they will get lesser time under the law. Most kids will test their limits.

  • cocoa

    I THINK THAT ALOT OF SENTENCING HAVE TO DO WITH RACE AND I BELIEVE IN SECOND CHANCES EVERYONE DESERVE ONE IN PRISON. ITS FUNNY HOW THEY TOOK GED PROGRAMS AND THING OF THAT MAGNITUDE OUT OF PRISONS. PRISONS ARE FILLED WITH MINORITIES THAT BEEN KEPT DOWN AND ITS THEIR WAY OF KEEPING THEM DOWN FOR LIFE THOSE KIDS DID NOT DESERVE LIFE IN PRISON COME ON NOW PEOPLE WE ARE NOT STUPID WE KNOW WHERE THIS KIND OF HATE IS COMING FROM ITS TIME TO BAND TOGETHER AS ONE AND PUT A END TO THIS BULLSH*T FOR ONCE. TIME TO STOP TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK AND HELP OUT EACHOTHER

  • Mrs. Philly

    If they were white they would have gotten 12 months in Juvy! This is sad…

  • Janae

    “If not, “life” seems a bit harsh?”

    That was meant to be a statement, not a question.

  • I’m Just Me: Keeping It Real Since 1983

    So these boys were given life without no ID or DNA evidence against them? Wow what kid of promitive racist law are we still living under, wow, astonising!

    **************************************************************

    YES!!!! It is.

  • shavondenise

    Malvo all over again!! Something needs to be done because since crack is wack & gang violence isnt killing our youth the criminal justice system will handle it.

  • muchluv

    shavondenise said it all…they want to get our brothers behind bars for their cheap labor force and to feed into the business machine called “the Penal System”.

  • Nique

    @Janae

    I understand the point you are trying to make but I think that that particular question was alittle crude.Lets not undermine what the victim went through to make a point..

  • Janae

    @ Nique

    I’m a STRONG supporter of victims rights. And, I want sexual assault crimes to be punished more SEVERELY. Even if it seems like it, I NEVER undermine what the victim went through. I know too many people who are the victims of sexual assault. I just like to know the facts (particularly the forensic facts) of any case.

  • Janae

    @ Nique

    guy won’t STOP after being asked (I forgot that word.)

  • http://orhardlyworking.blogspot.com shaahn

    Life for home invasion????

  • Nique

    @Janae

    Your post above clarified your previous question for me…I do agree that the life sentence was a bit harsh but then again, like you said-we dont know all the facts…

  • atty following the cases

    I’ve been following these cases and wanted to point out a few things:

    1. Graham was not 15. He was 16 when the armed burglary occurred and 17 when he violated probation.

    2. No one is arguing that the kids in these cases should “get off” or not be held responsible. No one is arguing they should have been treated as children and released at 18. The argument is, yes, we concede you can try them as adults and punish them harshly, but you can’t place a *permanent* judgment on a kid that young, saying they will *never* be fit to return to society, even if they change and reform in prison. The lawyers in the cases concede that, say, a life sentence with review for parole after serving a minimum of 25 years would be acceptable under the Constituion. That wouldn’t even be a guarantee that they would be released. Just a review. If they have turned into thugs in prison, the State can hold them for life. But if they have reformed, pose no risk of violence and are 40-something years old, they need to have a chance for release.

    3. There is absolutely a racial component to sentencing in Florida, and everywhere else I have seen in the US. On the other hand, it is not as simple as “if you’re black you get life, if you’re white you get off.” I have personally had white clients serving life with no parole in Florida for juvenile crimes in which no one was killed, and I know of many more. That being said, overall, you have a significantly higher chance of getting a harsh sentence if you are black, and that is outrageous. I just thought I should point out that in individual cases, sentencing can be unpredictable and is not always controlled by a single factor. (For example, even the prosecutor in Graham asked for only 30 years, while the probation officer recommended 4 years. Any other judge would have given, at most, 30 years. But this judge was in a bad mood, and he handed out a life sentence that no one was asking for.)

    4. The victim in Sullivan was white. And this was made quite clear at the trial. The victim in Graham’s second crime (the “home invasion” robbery that violated his probation) was Hispanic. I don’t know about the restaurant manager in the first crime (the armed burglary).

  • Nique

    @atty following the case

    Thanks for the info.

  • Janae

    @ atty following the cases

    Thanks for the insight.

  • Nova

    That is so sad.

  • reggie reg

    Good. NOW, they cant commit any more crimes that they can blame on society. Let em rot in prison. F’em.

  • Tracey

    Out on probabtion and still commit more crimes, plus they and their family know the law.

    If the law set a precedent with this sentencing, and all criminals were treated like this, fine, if not it is harsh.

    On the whole, if the parents cannot take responsiblity for their children, I guess the state does.

    I hope these children are looked after in prision, rehiblitated, educated, trained up for manual skills and also given counselling, this is all we can ask for.

    I hope these children are also used to set an example for other children and parents, maybe they should be used to go around the schools in America ans shown as an example of what can happen if you repeatedly break the laws in America.

  • Mir-Mir

    It depends on the crime. If they had assaulted and molested my child I wouldn’t want them to ever be released again – b/c they may harm another child. It doesn’t necessarily have to be death – what if they tortured a person in a horrific manner – I wouldn’t want that person to be released.

  • http://www.twitter.com/mastermk7 MasterMK

    We dont need grandma rapists to be roaming the streets unless they get their tellywackers and nuts chopped off then it is ok for parole.

  • Tracey

    We must remember locking up these boys also serves well for the black community, we do not have to deal with these thugs anymore, just ashame that who ever produced these little devils do not have to be responsible for them!

  • tennis

    I guess it would be easy to say yes because I am a man of color and they boys are young enought to be my sons but it truly depends on the crime.

    I believe we have heard over these few months some very strange and cruel crimes committed by some of our young folk. If we were on the opposite side of those crimes would we feel the same if this question were put to us?

  • Sha_Babi93

    WHAT!!!! they did.t kill any one….but they got life in prison????

  • KrusherKronkite

    The laws still haven’t deterred young black males from making mature decisions.

    mediaanarchist.wordpress.com

  • darealwifey

    Children are called CHILDREN because they lack the experience and incapable of fully understanding the consequences and depth of their actions, which is something only time and age can teach. Kids that commit serious crimes should be punished, but in a way that is appropriate for their age. Juvenile sentences should be as much about rehabilitation and therapy, as punitive. Sometimes, more serious punishment is warranted, for example heinous murders. But most child cases should be aimed at getting to the root of the child’s problems and helping them overcome and adapt and getting them back into society.

  • http://www.bossip.com A.T.F. & D.E.A.

    This is what happens when you worship guns & other BS. Yeah I’m talking to you GLOK ( weak boy! ) & Homo from across the water 6am

  • reesee

    I agree the sentences were too long. But I also think you must be accountable for your actions.

    Alot of people are saying, oh, they are young and did’nt know what they were doing. Really?
    When I was younger, I knew stealing, raping, and conspiring to do these things were wrong.
    We have to be responsible for our actions. Stop making excuses for ending up in prison, on welfare, etc, etc. Take responsiblity for you and your children’s actions.

  • UnkleRuckus

    It’s not like they were framed. The village needs to stop ignoring the child.

  • Cal

    The choices given to vote on are absurd

  • asgquicks

    What???? they got life and they didn’t kill anybody?? besides that juveniles should not get life in prison.

    BUT SINCE THEIR BLACK THE SYSTEM WILL WORK AGAINST THEM….. AS PER USUAL.

  • scooby dubious

    Re: the race hypothesis.

    When I was a negro, our parents explained to us very patiently that the rules — all of them — are different for white kids than they are for us. A white kid could be a hippy (I’m pretty old), insult the police, smoke drugs, and be a pest. But he could still cut his hair and put on nice clothes and get a job faster than a black kid could. So we were encouraged to keep our noses clean, or at the very least, not aspire to the same liberties of behavior that white kids had.
    I thought then and still think that’s very good advice. It doesn’t appear that black people tell their kids that any more. I think a few years of relative calm, limited economic and political gains, and a lot more discretion by white people about their true feelings have misled a lot of black people into thinking they have the same rights, and especially the same license, that white people in America have.

    This is categorically false. Repeat: black people do not have the same rights that white people do. And quite probably never will. Some injustices are beyond the reach of law, even of activism. This is grievous, but it’s not terminal. In the short term, black people need to be a lot smarter. Especially black boys and black professional athletes everywhere. We certainly aren’t going to ameliorate racism by inviting retaliatory prosecutions, even if white kids committing the same acts get off relatively lightly. The point is not to gain the same right as white kids to act like barbarians. The point is to stop committing crimes in the first place, to marginalize the criminally-oriented among us.

    It was useful to know that black kids didn’t have the same options that white kids did. It made it that much easier to make sensible choices, knowing the consequences were going to be much more dire for me than for my white friends. I find it useful knowledge still.

    If you’re a black parent, please tell your kids today that the rules are different for them. We can’t really afford to send any more of our kids out into a hostile environment when they’re so confused.

  • sev

    THEY SHOULDNT BE LOCKED UP FOR LIFE ITS A WASTE OF MONEY JUST PUT THEM TO DEATH AND GET IT OVER WITH. I SURE AS HELL DONT WANT THOSE SAVAGES WALKING THE STREETS. PS IM SICK OF BLACK PEOPLE CRYING RACISM THATS TIRED ALREADY. I HAD SOME FRIENDS VISITING ME FROM ASIA AND THEY WERE SHOCKED AT HOW SAVAGE BLACK PEOPLE ACT

  • newbein

    Lock them up and throw away the key. I don’t feel sorry for them. At a young age they were already career criminals, they were only going to get worse with age. I say do away with the juvy system and try all criminals with the same rules and punishment regardless of age. Lock up all these young thugs.

  • Gradschool

    I think that it’s a severe sentence for a crime that did not result in murder. It is not black people screaming racism it’s the fact of the matter. White people commit murder and get 15 years with the option of parole in 7 years. Young black people commit robbery and get life in prison, does that sound fair to you? People like Sev and his Asian friends should ask themselves how they would feel if the situation was reversed. BTW there are “savages” and degenerates in all races don’t try to put that only on black people. That accusation is some of your own savage qualities coming out.

  • KB’s wife

    with a non-homicide crime??? GTFOOH……. and they got life

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