Life Without Parole Is Not The Answer

by Matt Kelley · 2009-08-25 17:45:00 UTC
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Human Trafficking blogger Amanda Kloer has the story today of Sara Kruzan, who was sentenced to life without parole ten years ago in California for killing her abusive pimp when she was 16. She was forced to work as a child prostitute for three years, and she finally retaliated, killing the man who had controlled her and raped her regularly since she was 13.

Her case is a clear example of our horribly misguided (and overused) life without parole sentences for juveniles. Not only was she young and abused when she was sentenced to LWOP, but she killed a man who abused her for years – possibly making it a case of battered person syndrome.

Both her age at the time of the crime and the suffering she had endured should have qualified her for a more reasonable sentence.

And like many people in prison – and especially those sent away as kids – she has changed behind bars and feels that spending the rest of life locked up would be a terrible waste.

“I have a lot of good to offer,” she says in a heartbreaking video interview from prison (watch it after the jump). “The person who I am today at 29, I could set a positive example. I’m very determined to show that no matter what you’ve done, or where you’ve come from, or what you’ve experienced in life, it’s up to you to change,”

The U.S. is virtually alone in sentencing any juveniles to life without parole, let alone those like Kruzan who clearly deserve compassion. We have nearly 2,500 prisoners serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles – while the rest of the world has only 12 total. (Israel has seven, South Africa has four and Tanzania has one).

The devastating YouTube interview with Sarah is below, and Amanda’s post on this devastating case from a human trafficking perspective is here.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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