America’s longest-serving juvenile prisoner who received a life sentence in 1953 has finally been freed after spending 68 years behind bars during which he refused to apply for parole because he says he never killed anyone.

83-year-old Joseph Ligon was only 15 when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1953 for taking part in a string of robberies and assaults with a group of drunk teens in Philadelphia.

Two people died as a result of those crimes, though Ligon told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he didn’t kill anyone.

Ligon was freed from a Philadelphia Correctional Institution Phoenix in Montgomery County on Thursday.

‘That was no sad day for me,’ Ligon said.

Ligon was born in Alabama to a poor family. After moving to Philadelphia, he was enrolled in elementary school but he dropped out by the fourth grade and was illiterate.

When he was 15 years old, he was considered an outsider among his peers. Ligon believes he was scapegoated and made to take the fall for the crimes.

In prison, Ligon kept to himself. Most of the time, he worked as a janitor. He also learned to read and write.

In his spare time, Ligon also trained as a boxer and kept in good physical condition by enduring grueling workouts.

In the 1970s, hundreds of lifers in Pennsylvania were released as part of a clemency plan, but Ligon never applied to have his sentence commuted.

‘I’m just a stubborn type of person,’ Ligon said.

‘I was born that way.’

Bradley Bridge, a public defender who has represented Ligon as his attorney since 2006 said his client’s case is an illustration of the excesses of the criminal justice system.

‘We waste people’s lives by over-incarcerating and we waste money by over-incarcerating,’ he said.

‘His case graphically demonstrates the absurdity of wasting each.’

Bridge added: ‘Hopefully his release and the release of the juvenile lifers, in general, will cause a re-evaluation of the way we incarcerate people.’

https://africaexplained.com.ng/american-prisoner-who-claim-to-be-innocent-finally-released-after-68-years-in-prison/

This is the height of injustice. he should sue for damages and I'm sure he will win the case

Wetin he want take his life do now
They Don finish the guy na

How do you lock a human being up for 68 years!!! This incarceration system is highly flawed!!

He Is Still Better Than An Avarage Nigerian Who Has Been In Freedom Since 1960.
He Will Be Heavily Compensated To Start A New Life!
Oh Wait New Life At 80? No Na Una Too Wicked Am

So he was even jailed during the period Awolowo, Zik and Ahmadu Bello, and Balewa were still negotiating our independence, WTF. This is a conscienceless judicial system even a murderer should be freed on parole after 30 years and if he shows no changes he can now be sent back to prison but 68 years strait in jail is the height of madness. Worst of it all is that he was just a juvenile and he ended up spending 4 times his age in jail.

Hard one.

LMS1:
He Is Still Better Than An Avarage Nigerian Who Has Been In Freedom Since 1960.
He Will Be Heavily Compensated To Start A New Life!
Oh Wait New Life At 80? No Na Una Too Wicked Am

No amount of compensation could bring back what he lost