Court Roundup

Louisiana
New law sets stage for lifer’s release from jail
GRETNA, La. (AP) — A Jefferson Parish man serving life in prison for raping a woman when he was 15 years old is now eligible for parole under a state law passed this year in response to a U.S. Supreme Court order.

The Times-Picayune reports Jerome Richardson, now 46, is the first of 10 juvenile lifers who were prosecuted as adults in Jefferson Parish of crimes other than murder whose sentences are modified under the new law that became effective Aug. 1. Richardson has served about 30 years of the life sentence for a 1981 aggravated rape conviction.

Statewide, there are 48 people eligible for parole after serving 30 years of their sentences.

The new law, which Gov. Bobby Jindal signed in June, was enacted two years after a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Graham vs. Florida that life sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of crimes other than homicide amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Justices did not order juvenile lifers be set free, but they found such lifers should be given "some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation."

Attorneys representing Richardson sought a sentence modification in April, but state District Judge Steve Windhorst postponed a ruling until this week, to see whether the legislature took action on the Graham mandate. Carol Kolinchak, legal director for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, who helped steer Richardson's case, did not return a call for comment.

On June 8, 1981, a week after he turned 15, Richardson and James Kennedy, then 19, forced a couple playing tennis at Jefferson Playground to the Mississippi River batture in Harahan. There, authorities said, Richardson held the woman at knifepoint and raped her. Kennedy held the man at gunpoint during the rape and then shot him several times. The man survived.

Both teens were convicted of aggravated rape, which carries mandatory life in prison with no chance of probation, parole or suspended sentence. Kennedy's punishment is not affected by the Graham decision.

Jefferson Parish judges began wrangling with the Graham cases last year, when defense attorneys began filing petitions to correct the "illegal sentences." The legislature last year failed to pass a law to meet the mandate, so the Louisiana Supreme Court adopted an interim decision making juvenile lifers parole eligible after they turn 45 and serve at least 20 years of their sentence. Several Jefferson Parish lifers were resentenced under that decision.

Eligibility under the new law comes with strings, such as the lifer cannot have disciplinary infractions during the year before seeking parole and must have earned a GED if he didn't have a high school diploma. If released on parole, convicted rapists such as Richardson must register as sex offenders.
The number of lifers in Louisiana affected by that ruling was not immediately available, but nationwide, the decision affects about 2,500 lifers.