From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:
That Friday night in February, Joe Ligon went drinking. He tore through the neighborhood, South Philadelphia, with five other teenagers looking for money to buy wine. One boy carried two switchblades.
Something went wrong. By night’s end, eight men had been knifed. There’s no question Ligon was involved. He admits stabbing Clarence Belvey. Two men, Charles Pitts and Jackson Hamm, died before midnight.
Ligon was 15…
Click here to read the full article.
Thank you for linking to Karen Heller’s thought-provoking Philadelphia Inquirer article on crime and punishment in Pennsylvania.
According to this story, Joe Ligon, a convicted murderer, spent the last 57 years watching TV, listening to the radio, training and competing in “his true love” of boxing, enjoying his prison job, eating three square meals a day and receiving free medical care, including a hernia operation and 37 treatments for prostate cancer. Meanwhile, Charles Pitts and Jackson Hamm spent the past 57 years underground, in boxes measuring 3 ft. wide x 7 ft. long. And Joe Ligon, who was part of the group that attacked and murdered Charlie Pitts and Jackson Hamm, says, “I’m not resentful. I don’t show no bitterness. I’m bigger than that.” Mr. Ligon’s magnanimous attitude should serve as an inspiration to us all.
By the way, if the group of five had only two switchblades between them, and Ligon was wielding one of those weapons (which he admits to), it seems to me there’s at least a 50/50 chance he committed one or both murders with his own hand.
Ms. Heller apparently finds it shameful and inhumane to have kept Ligon in prison all these years. I’d love to know what sentence she would impose on four teenagers arrested last week in Reading. They allegedly drove around looking for someone to rob, then stopped, beat, and shot a 15-year-old boy, stealing the sneakers from his feet as he lay dying. (Link: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=248647 ) If Ms. Heller was their judge, and found them guilty, would she make them each serve 15 years behind bars, or would she consider that too harsh a punishment? (Juvenile murderers with life sentences could be paroled after serving 15 years under legislation introduced by State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson, Democrat of Philadelphia.)
The name of the boy murdered in Reading was Willy Tineo-Ferreira. Since he’s gone now, I suppose our sympathy and compassion should be directed toward the poor, unfortunate youths who callously slaughtered him.
I agree with Ms. Heller about one thing: We shouldn’t be spending $32,000 per year to keeping murderers in prison for life. I wouldn’t release them into society, however. (Even if they’re no longer dangerous, which is far from certain, does anyone believe that, out of prison, these men would be less of a drain on taxpayers funds?) Instead, Pennsylvania should find ways to drastically cut the cost of keeping murderers in prison (EVEN IF the cost-cutting results in prison life being less enjoyable for the murderers).