Florida Prisoner Whose Case Ended LWOP for Juveniles Released
On February 13, 2024, a judge in Florida’s Duval County amended state prisoner Terrence Graham’s sentence, paving the way for the 37-year-old’s release later that same month. Sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) in 2006 for crimes committed when he was 16 and 17—one an armed burglary, the other a home invasion robbery—the Jacksonville native didn’t know then that his case would make legal history with a precedent-setting decision from the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS).
His sentence was extremely harsh: His attorney asked for five years, while prosecutors wanted 30. The judge sided with them and handed down the maximum. Bryan S. Gowdy, Graham’s lawyer on appeal, was so shocked when he got the case—a juvenile given LWOP for a non-homicide crime—that he took it all the way to SCOTUS, arguing that it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. He was supported by numerous amicus briefs saying that kids are different, and they can change. In its May 2010 decision in Graham v. Florida, the high Court agreed, ending LWOP for juveniles not convicted of homicide, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2010, p. 42.]
But the decision did not provide immediate relief for Graham. In 2012, he was resentenced to a 25-year prison term by the same judge he originally had. The state legislature later passed a law allowing prisoners sentenced as teens to have a chance for review after 15, 20 or 25 years served, depending on their crimes. But that came too late to help Graham.
Remaining in prison over a decade more, he earned his GED, took college classes and strengthened his faith. He also co-founded Plead the 8th, a nonprofit devoted to keeping children from incarceration in Florida’s adult prison system.
After his release from the state prison in Raiford at the end of February 2024, Graham entered the transitional program at Prisoners of Christ (POC), where he is on community control for two years. POC finds jobs, housing and provides behavioral therapy for prisoners reentering society. Graham will still be on probation for five years, with a list of related requirements, one of them financial: He has $11,000 in fees and fines to pay before he can get off probation.
In a March 2024 interview just weeks after his release, Graham was asked if he had any conclusions about his newly found freedom and replied: “It’s all been good. I’ve been eating prison food with no seasoning for 20 years. So to come out here to taste my mom’s home-cooked spaghetti and lasagna, I can’t even decide which one is the best. There’s a whole lot of food I haven’t tried yet. But I will let you know.”
Sources: Florida Times-Union, Slate, WJXT