Joe Ligon

Joseph Ligon (born May 3, 1938) is an American convicted murderer and former prisoner. He was America's longest-serving prisoner who was wrongfully convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by association and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole as a juvenile, at the age of 15. After the Supreme Court had ruled in Montgomery v. Louisiana that all mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences were retroactively unconstitutional, he was released without parole in February 2021 after a federal court vacated his sentence, having spent 68 years in prison.

Early life
Ligon was born on May 3, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second oldest of four children. His mother was a nurse, while his father was an auto mechanic.

He grew up on a farm in Birmingham, Alabama with his maternal grandparents and had a difficult early life. Ligon didn't grow up with many friends and instead remembers spending most of his time with his family, such as watching his grandfather preach in a local church on Sundays.

At age 13, Ligon moved back to South Philadelphia to live in a blue-collar neighbourhood with his family. He attended Thomas Durham School, where he was enrolled in the "orthogenically backward" ("O.B.") program for special education. At the time he dropped out of school, he was in third or fourth grade, hadn't played any sports and wasn't able to read or write.

Murders and sentencing
On February 20, 1953, while living in South Philadelphia, Ligon was part of an alcohol-fueled stabbing spree with five teenagers that resulted in the death of Charles Pitts and Jackson Hamm and the injury of six others. He met up with two teenagers he knew casually and they came across two other teenagers, previously unknown to him, who were drinking wine. They began robbing people in order to try and purchase alcohol.

After Ligon was arrested, he claimed he was not permitted legal representation or family visitation and signed confessions put in front of him by the police. The attorney instructed him to plead guilty to the murders at the one-day trial. Ligon and the other defendants had a one-day trial and they were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

At the time of his trial, Ligon admitted to stabbing Clarence Belvey in the chest who survived the attack. He has affirmed his guilt for the stabbing and expressed remorse subsequently. He has repeatedly denied being responsible for either murder.

Parole
In the early 1970s, Ligon and his accomplices were offered clemency by the governor. Ligon, however, was the only one to reject the offer since he would have to be on parole for the rest of his life.

Bradley Bridge, his attorney for 15 years, said that Ligon had been found guilty by association and that if he were tried today, he would more likely be convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 5 or 10 years. Bridge said giving an adult sentence to a child is inherently wrong.

In 2012, life sentences for juveniles without the possibility of parole were ruled to be unconstitutional in the US Supreme Court. In 2016, the Supreme Court said that the 2012 ruling was retroactive. In 2017, Ligon was re-sentenced to 35 years in jail and became eligible for parole due to the time already served. Ligon felt his sentence had always been unconstitutional, so he returned to court to argue against the parole. The federal court agreed and on February 11, 2021 he was released without parole.

Release
Ligon was released on February 11, 2021, from State Correctional Institution - Phoenix When Bridge went to the jail to collect him, he remarked Ligon was completely calm—he didn't have an "oh my God" reaction and there was no drama. A month later, Ligon remarked about his release: "It was like being born all over again. Because everything was new to me – just about everything". After being released, Ligon moved into a West Philadelphia rowhouse and stated that he intended to gain employment as a janitor, attend the Bible Way Baptist Church, get a gym membership, and visit his sister and nieces and nephews in New Jersey.

Upon his release, Ligon became America's longest serving juvenile lifer, having served 68 years behind bars. The Vera Institute of Justice estimated it had cost the state of Pennsylvania nearly $3 million ($44,000/year) to incarcerate him.