Battle For A Second Chance Leads To A Landmark Ruling

Summary: Mary Graham is the mother of a boy who was sentenced to a life in prison at the age of 17 in 2006 for committing a second armed robbery. There would be no more life in the outside world for her son and she would no longer be able to see him happy doing the things that he enjoyed. But this past Monday, May 17th, the supreme court gave the Grahams a ray of hope. The court decided that the punishment of life in prison without payrole was far to cruel for someone under 18 that had not been convicted of murder. It was researched that no other country punishes this way because it gives them no chance to redeem themselves and to learn from their mistakes. It is likely that Mr. Graham will return to court for resentensing and will probably still be put in prison for some time but at least now there is hope for him in the future. As a child Terrance was a good boy but fell into the wrong crowd in high school. Now even in prison he is trying to turn his life around. He works in the prison library and ended up recieving his high school diploma from prison. This just goes to show that people may make mistakes but that doesn't mean they will be that way forever and won't realize the wrongs that they've done.

Opinion: After reading this article I believe that the sentence of life in prison without the possibility of payrole was definitely too harsh for the crime that Terrance Graham committed. I do think that he deserves prison time but at the age of 17, life in prison seems to be a bit much. With this sentence he isn't even givin the opportunity to change or learn from his mistakes. Some of our greatest world leaders have made mistakes, learned from them, and then made something of themselves, so why souldn't we give Terrance the same chance. Especially after seeing his determination to keep up with his school work and graduate from high school. It just goes to show that he already is trying to change for the better and become the person he wishes he could have been before making those wrong decisions. I hope that his resentence will now be changed to only a certain number of years in prison, therefore giving him the opportunity to be with his family again and to make something of himself. Miracles happen every day.