Salim's sister Anita presenting on JLWOP at the Stopmax conference in 2008.
As requested by State Senator Steward Greenleaf
Monday, September 22, 2008, 9:30 AM
In Hearing Room #1, North Office Building, Harrisburg, PA
on
Juveniles Sentenced to Life without Parole in Pennsylvania
Good morning Senator Greenleaf and Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. My name is Anita Colón. I am the sister of Robert Holbrook, a man currently serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania for a crime he was convicted of participating in at the age of 16. First, I would like to thank you, Senator Greenleaf, for holding this hearing on the issue of sentencing juveniles to life without the possibility of parole in Pennsylvania and allowing me to testify before you today. I praise both your concern about this issue as well as your willingness to step forward to address it.
My brother Robert was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a crime that occurred on his sixteenth birthday. That day, lured by the promise of $500 made by a neighborhood drug dealer, Robert agreed to serve as a lookout for four adult males for what he thought was going to be a simple drug deal. My brother soon found himself in the midst of a robbery of a drug dealer’s young wife inside her home. Although he desperately wanted to run once he realized what was happening, he was terrified of the drug dealer that had ordered him to stay, and oblivious to the consequences that would await him if he remained.
J.C. Lore III is a clinical associate professor at Rutgers Law School, Camden
The United States leads the world - by far - in sentencing children to die in prisons. It's the only country in the world where children are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, and Pennsylvania leads the 50 states in the category.
At least 2,380 American prisoners - 450 of them, or nearly one-fifth, in Pennsylvania - were sentenced as juveniles and will never be considered for release. They will never have the opportunity to demonstrate that they have been rehabilitated. They are effectively guaranteed to spend their entire lives behind bars for things they did as children.
For being a traitorous friend, Stacey Torrance was thrown into jail for life.
Torrance was just 14 when an older cousin convinced him in 1988 to lure a rich kid to a North Philadelphia corner, where the cousin and an accomplice kidnapped and later shot and strangled him.
Legislation brings US into compliance with its international treaty obligations
WASHINGTON - September 11 - Today, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security is scheduled to hold a hearing on a bill that would help end the practice of sentencing children to life in prison without the possibility of parole and provide grants to states to improve the quality of legal representation for youth charged with an offense that could lead to a life sentence. In a letter to Representatives Robert C.
Fed Up, the Pittsburgh chapter of The Human Rights Coalition recently interviewed Anita, Saleem's sister for their 2.3 million and rising radio show on Rustbelt Radio. Check it out by clicking below:
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/29598.php#9_45_2_3_Million_...
Audio posted by Pittsburgh IMC: Rustbelt Radio collective to Pittsburgh Indymedia (27.3 mebibytes)
by Robert L. Holbrook
In Pennsylvania prior to the passage of legislative statutes governing the automatic transfer of juvenile offenders charged with murder into Adult Court, juvenile offenders charged with murder were protected from automatic transfer into Adult Court. They were routinely subjected to a hearing before a judge to determine whether or not, based on their maturity and capacity, they would be transferred into Adult Court. Transfers of juvenile offenders charged with murder were rare and typically reserved for heinous crimes in which the juvenile offender was the actual perpetrator or when the juvenile offender had an extensive arrest/detention record.
