ST. LOUIS – A man serving a 241-year prison sentence for an armed robbery may have a second chance at freedom.
The judge who sentenced him decades ago now says she regrets the harsh punishment, and she’s calling on the Supreme Court to take up his case.
In December 1995, two teens robbed a group of people delivering Christmas presents in St. Louis, firing shots but not seriously injuring anyone. Police say they then carjacked a woman in another location.
The older suspect took a plea deal. The younger one, Bobby Bostic, just 16 years old at the time, chose to go to trial. A judge sentenced him to 241 years in prison.
That judge, Evelyn Baker, is now retired. Tuesday, she wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying she regrets that sentence.
“I told him: ‘You are the biggest fool who has ever stood in front of this court. ... You made your choice. You’re gonna have to live with your choice, and you’re gonna die with your choice. ... Your mandatory date to go in front of the parole board will be the year 2201. Nobody in this room is going to be alive in the year 2201.'
“I thought I was faulting Bostic for his crimes. Looking back, I see that I was punishing him both for what he did and for his immaturity,” she writes.
The ACLU of Missouri now represents Bostic, as he takes his fight to highest court in the country with Judge Baker's backing.
"She contacted us about a week ago saying that she was in support of us trying to take this case to the Supreme Court,” ACLU spokeswoman Daniela Velazquez said.
The ACLU says the punishment was unfair, unjust and unconstitutional, and in her Op-Ed, Judge Baker agrees. She cites a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that says kids' brains are different from adults, so they should not be sentenced to life without parole in non-murder cases.
Bostic “has gone on to earn an education in prison, he has worked toward rehabilitation, and he's not even eligible for parole until he is 112 years old,” Velazquez said.
Baker asks the Supreme Court to give Bostic the chance “to show that he has changed and does not deserve to die in prison for something he did when he was just 16.”
And the ACLU believes her change of heart could help his case.
"It gives us some hope that they will take a look at this case and try and make it right,” Velazquez said.
Tuesday, the Supreme Court asked the state of Missouri to respond to this case. The ACLU says that is a sign the court is at least looking more closely at the case and may decide to take it up.
