Sara Kruzan Tells Change.org Members: Thanks

Sara Kruzan was sentenced to life without parole when she was just 16, one of more than 250 Californians faced with the prospect of dying behind bars for crimes they committed as minors.

Now 33 – meaning she's spent more than half her life in a prison cell -- Sara was convicted of killing the man who raped her at 13 and forced her into a life of prostitution and drug addiction. Since being sentenced, Sara has become a model prisoner and a case study in the value of rehabilitation, despite spending years fearing she may never see the outside world again.

And she's one of the lucky ones.

After more than 60,000 Change.org members flooded former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inbox with messages demanding she be granted clemency and immediately released, the governor responded, reducing her sentence to 25 years to life – short of the ultimate goal, yes, but a development that restores Sara's opportunity to redeem herself.

And for that she's thankful.

"I am grateful to Governor Schwarzenegger for commuting my sentence so that I will have an opportunity to be released from prison,” Sara says in a message to Change.org. “I will continue to do everything in my power to earn my freedom at the earliest possible time. And I am deeply grateful to all the people and organizations who supported my plea for clemency."

Though not yet free, Sara's case will likely be reviewed by a parole board in the next few years – a far better situation than the one she faced before: a life without the possibility of redemption. Her case will also be reviewed the California Supreme Court, which could grant her a new trial.

Since going to prison, Sara has accepted full responsibility for her crime, acknowleding that the actions she took that led to her imprisonment – the taking of another's life – were inexcusable and fully deserving of punishment. But she deserves a second chance, one she's been preparing for by taking college courses; at a prison ceremony next week, she'll be receiving her associate's degree, a step toward preparing herself for freedom.

But there are many others like her across the United States – the only country in the world to sentence children to life without the possibility of parole, with Pennsylvania leading the way – who won't get a second chance; indeed, more than 2,500 people sentenced as children won't even get the possibility of a chance to taste freedom again. They can earn as many college degrees as they want, assuming such opportunities are available to them, but no amount of demonstrated rehabilitation will set them free.

While activists can rightly take pride in reducing Sara's sentence, it would be foolish to think our work is done.

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