3 takeaways from our review of all 185 Tennessee teen lifers
In December, activists confronted former Gov. Bill Haslam at an education event and demanded that he grant clemency to Cyntoia Brown, a Nashville woman serving a life sentence in prison for a murder she committed at 16.
At the time, the outgoing Republican governor said he wanted to treat the case fairly, along with cases that were similar but had not received the same level of publicity as Brown's case.
Indeed, Brown had celebrities — including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West — advocating on her behalf, and she had a team of powerful lawyers who volunteered to pursue her freedom.
Ultimately, Haslam decided to grant Brown clemency, calling her sentence too harsh. And he acknowledged her case was not unique, saying he hoped "serious consideration of additional reforms will continue, especially with respect to the sentencing of juveniles."
In the wake of his decision, the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee spent weeks reviewing the cases of each of the 185 men and women serving a life sentence — or life without parole — for crimes they committed as teens.
Here are three takeaways from what our reporting found.
Vast majority of those serving are black men
Nearly three-quarters of those serving life sentences for crimes they committed before the age of 18 are African-American men.
Here are some of the other breakdowns of the 185 people serving life. Seven are serving life sentences for crimes committed at age 14; 26 were 15 years old at the time of their crimes; 53 were 16. The rest were 17.
Ten are women.
Fourteen are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, while the remainder face at least 51 years behind bars before their first chance for a parole hearing.
The oldest is Robert Walker, sentenced to life in prison for murder in 1972 at age 16. He is now 63.
The youngest is Jalean Williams, who along with his 19-year-old brother, was convicted in the murder of a teenager inside an Antioch home in 2015, when he was 15. Williams is now 19.
Adverse childhood experiences factor into calls for reform
In pushing for clemency, Brown's supporters spoke passionately about how she was a victim herself and that should have factored into her sentencing. Brown shot and killed 43-year-old Johnny Allen while in bed with him because she believed he was reaching for a gun.
Those advocating on her behalf say she is a victim of child sex trafficking, forced into prostitution as a teenage runaway and then punished for defending herself.
It is those type of adverse childhood experiences that those pushing for sentencing reform say need consideration.
State Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, said many young defendants face childhood hardships and traumas that can be overcome with time and treatment.
“There are so many others like Cyntoia,” Akbari said.
“It’s so complicated when you’re dealing with loss of life, but we are talking about children,” she said. “As horrific as it sounds that a child committed murder, the person they are now is not the person they will be in 20 years.”
Indeed, in many of the cases the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee reviewed, court records document a history of abuse suffered by the convicted teens.
A 16-year-old girl sentenced to life in prison in the stabbing death of her mother was repeatedly forced to watch her mother have sex with multiple men.
A 15-year-old boy whose stepfather regularly beat his mother got into a confrontation with the man while asking if he would let them peacefully leave.
The boy beat the stepfather to death with a baseball bat.
A 17-year-old boy killed his father after what he and his mother described as years of physical and emotional abuse that had been reported to the state.
The father threatened to beat the boy after a suicide attempt and withheld mental health medication, according to the mother. The boy shot his father with a rifle and stole his truck.
Other states have taken action
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of rulings in recent years that found mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional except in rare circumstances.
Since 2014, at least 24 states have either eliminated life without parole for juvenile offenders or imposed automatic reviews of life sentences imposed on teens after they have served a certain amount of years — ranging from 15 years to 40 years.
Pennsylvania is one of several states to create a mechanism to review the sentences of every inmate serving life in prison for crimes committed as minors.
Of the 535 men and women whose sentences were reviewed, 250 were resentenced and 150 released, according to Marsha Levick, chief legal officer with the Juvenile Law Center.
In Tennessee, the Supreme Court's rulings have not had an impact because there is no mandatory life sentence. Life sentences with the possibility of parole include a mandatory review after at least 51 years served — a length of time advocates call a virtual life sentence.
Unlike other states, Tennessee has not put into place any mechanism to review the sentences of the 13 men and one woman sentenced to life with no possibility of parole.
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