Wow, how to get a title to do justice?
i am writing for a friend who took a 2nd degree murder plea for a murder he didn't actually do.
He was homeless and living on the street as a young teenager. A man who worked at the grocery store took him in if he did chores at the house and sexual toy for the man. The boy didn't have another place so he did it.
One night the boy was told he was to help the man break into a business and rob it. Due the boys very small size he could fit between the bars on the window.
The store owner was in the store, and the man shot the owner. The man then sent the boy by bus to Texas explaining that he was too small to survive prison, so he better run.
The boy had cut his hand on the window, so his DNA was at the store. He however never denied being there.
A couple years after the murder he was caught in Texas. Florida convinced a teenage boy that he had three options. a) go to trial and get put on death row because the DNA would make it easy b) Plea to 2nd degree murder and sit 25 years c) give up the guy who did it and go to prison for the same 25 years for being involved. His fellow people in jail made sure he knew that going to state prison as a snitch would be a death sentence.
The boy is not scheduled to get out of prison until 2029. He will get out of prison as a forty year old man that has never been outside as an adult. He went from drug addict parents throwing him to the streets, to sexually abused teenager, to petty crime to survive, to 25 years in prison. His criminal history has several charges, but no other violence against persons.
Since being in he did his GED (90th percentile). He has tried to start a distance learning class, but there is no money for the class. In short he has never been given a chance. In the supreme court case against florida the justice said that it is unreasonable to think a teenager can't be reformed and kids put on death row have a right to have review of their incarceration. I'm not sure there is much difference between death row and getting out of prison at 40 with no resources, no history of working, not even been an adult outside of prison.
He can not afford a lawyer, but is considering.
a) trying for executive clemency. Not asking for his record to be cleared, but just a chance to get out and have a chance to show he can be a productive member of society... Even under tight supervision is fine with him. All he wants is a chance.
b) trying to cut a deal to give up the man who did the murder and reduce his sentence. Not knowing where to go, how to protect himself both legally and as a snitch in prison.
c) try to file a pro se case trying to make the same claim that was just won for death row teenagers.
Wow, any suggestions?

