The Brain Science Behind Cutting Juvenile Lifers A Break

I hope this finds you and family well during these trying COVID times. Thank you for allowing  me the opportunity to address Arkansas’ juvenile lifers issue (those under age 21 sentenced to life) from an insider’s perspective. Both history and modern medical brain science support that those under 21 are redeemable and can become productive members of their environment and society once released on parole (20, 25 or 30 years later, determined by conviction). As you know the U.S. Supreme Court has used Dr. Laurence Steinberg‘s brain science research multiple times when making rulings prohibiting those under eighteen from receiving automatic life without parole and death sentences.

However, many do not know that the same late-adolescent brain science used for those under  18 also supports those under 21 being treated the same by our judicial system. The U.S.  Supreme Court only rules on issues before them (Jackson, Miller and Roper only dealt with defendants who were younger than eighteen).

Dr. Steinberg’s brain science actually reflects that the most dangerous decision making time of a young males lifetime is specifically age 1i, 19 and 20 years of age. They lack a fully-developed brain, which often leads to decision-making based upon immaturity and impulsivity. Late  adolescents of this age are just as redeemable as those under eighteen.

In the United States the “age of majority” was largely 21, until it was changed to 18 “for reasons quite unrelated to capacity,” according to Vivian Hamilton’s “Adulthood in Law and Culture” 2016. Furthermore, age 21 had been the universal “age of majority” in the United  States since its founding, until 1942, when “wartime needs” prompted Congress to lower the “age of  majority” from 21 to 18, which eventually led to the lowering of the age of majority generally (No 77, 56 Stat. 108, 1019 – year 1942). The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that “the evolving standards of decency mark the progress of a maturing society” when dealing with late  adolescent issues.

There is not a large population of “lifers under the age of 21,” yet I have personally known several who have gone on to effect positive change in their lives and others – becoming productive members of their  community and making the environment safer for other inmates, security and staff (who work here everyday).

In theory, only the worst youthful offenders (incorrigible and non-redeemable) would be given a life sentence (that has no parole for anyone over seventeen). However, due to prosecutorial and juror  discretion that is verifiably not the case. A first-time offender under twenty-one can receive a life or  death sentence on a Y-Felony, for the exact same crime and circumstances that a repeat older offender  familiar with the system and prosecutor gets 10 years for. How is this possible?

FIRST, by the discretion of the prosecutor on what to charge the defendant with:

Example 1: 5-10-101(b)(4) Capital Murder LIFE OR DEATH Y-Felony: “With the premediated and  deliberated purpose of causing the death of another person, the person causes the death of any person.”

Example 2: 5-10-102 (b)(2) 1^st Degree Murder 10 OR 40 OR LIFE Y-Felony: “With a purpose of  causing the death of another person, the person causes the death of any person.”

Example 3: 5-10-103 (a)(2) 2^nd Degree Murder 6 TO 30 years A-Felony: “With the purpose of  causing serious physical injury to another person, the person causes the death of any person.”

Example 4: 5-10-104 (1)(a) Manslaughter 3 TO 10 years C-Felony: “The person causes the death of  another person under circumstances that would be murder, except that he or she causes the death under  the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there is reasonable excuse.”

SECOND, by the way the jurors are forced to consider jury instructions from the harshest  penalty first to the lowest penalty (top down), thereby excluding lesser included penalties that the  defendant is guilty of. Just imagine you are on a jury and you are forced to make a decision in someone’s life as a result of a death at their hands. Your jury instruction generally forces you to read from the  harshest charge first (top down) to see if the elements exist for guilt of capital murder. However, those  same elements may exist for one of the lesser included charges as well. You are told if the elements exist for capital murder – it is your duty to return a vote of GUILT and your are told to read that instruction  first. So you never make it past the most serious charge. Now imagine that those jury instructions were  reversed and you were told to read the least charge first (bottom up) and that if you find elements exist  (mental duress, etc), then the verdict must be GUILTY.

THIRD, and last is determined by what county or jurisdiction you fall under. One may be  extremely harsh on certain offenses while other jurisdictions are lenient for the exact same crime of a  defendant with the same backgrounds. Invariable we end up with severe disproportionate sentencing of  first time youthful offenders when compared to older repeat offenders. Furthermore, you can’t exclude  the resulting disparities in racial and socioeconomic makeup of the offenders as well, no matter how well our intentions are. In Arkansas, according to the Washington DC Sentencing Project Report for 2021  titled “No End in Sight”:

America’s Enduring Reliance on Life Imprisonment” our state’s harshest sentencing figures  disproportionately go to Black Arkansans. Blacks make up 54% of life with no parole sentences and  virtual life sentences (sentences longer than the average life span) as opposed to 43% of Whites (page  19). Blacks make up only 13% of Arkansas population but are 54% of living death sentences (those who  will die in prison). Moreover if you include Hispanics 2% and Other 1% then the discrepancy is even  greater. 57% of these “living death sentences” go to Arkansas minorities. Though there may be valid  reasons behind some of these statistics, one thing is for certain: Such wide discretion from county to  county helps create such drastic disproportionate sentencing between first time offenders and minorities  when there is no sentencing grid that MUST be followed.

I am one of the under 21 lifers in Arkansas. With the exception of being highly trained and  skilled (in tactics, surface-to-air-missile systems and computer hardware/software systems) from a very  young age, my story is not much different from other broken “under 21 lifers” who are redeemable. At  age three (3) in April 1971, I entered the criminal justice system as Number 60 CR 71-73198. That’s  when my violent ARMY veteran father, Robert Lee Williford, Sr. (now deceased) became a convicted  child sex offender. As a result my mother divorced him and abandoned me.

I signed up for the ARMY at  age sixteen and became active upon turning seventeen. I was honorably discharged from the U.S. ARMY Air Defense “Missile” Artillery Unit and was  sent home after serving 12 months in Western, Germany, protecting Air Force Bases that were twice  attacked by RAF terrorist bombs (1985) and was deployed to North West Africa (1986) for a six week  covert deployment to observe, evaluate and train allies in anticipation of Quadaffi’s possible attacks  (after we bombed his military targets and palaces over his Berlin nightclub bombing). My childhood  abuse and some of the experiences I had in the military began to bear on me in the form of dissociative  episodes. Rather than receive mental health treatment I was offered an early honorable discharge which I foolishly accepted.

Regretfully and remorsefully, I came home and eventually started a house fire that killed my  Aunt (the only mother I had ever known) and injured my sister and uncle. Though charged with capital  murder and lesser included offenses of first degree and second degree murder, I was convicted of first  degree murder and sentenced to life in prison at age twenty in November 1988. Unbelievably my public  defender refused to talk with or allow the Arkansas State Hospital experts to testify that “I didn’t have  the mental culpability to be found guilty” due to the dissociative state I had been in as their mental health evaluation reflected (which would have supported second degree murder).

As many other under 21 lifers have done, I too have done everything in my power to atone for  my crimes against my family and our community. I have completed every program available even  though “lifers” in the Arkansas Department of Correction are not eligible to participate in them.  Additionally, I went on a two-year letter writing campaign (1995-1997) admitting my guilt to anyone  who would listen and asking for assistance for my family victims. I thank God that Arkansas Senator  Faye Boozman, Governor Huckabee, and the entire legislation responded by creating a day of honor for  my sister Shawnette Walker and granted her a “Senate Citation” for bravery which was mailed to me in  prison (I in turn mailed it to her).

My point is not about me per-se, but that broken youth under 21 are not incorrigible and are

worthy of parole after 20, 25 or 30 years based on the type of life sentence they have – just as those  under 18 currently are.

Our collective stories are not just about horror, abuse and crime. Our stories are also about  survival, victory, personal and spiritual healing in an environment not always conducive to such positive  outcomes. I continue to mentor impressionable at-risk prison youth and lost veterans who end up in the  prison system. I try to help them find reality and a God based purpose (new mission) in their life before they fully self-destruct and end up with a life sentence that has no parole. Thank you so much for  allowing me the privilege of speaking on this subject and thank you for your efforts during these trying  Covid times. Never forget that healed people, heal people.

NOTE: Robert Lee Williford, Jr. is currently housed at the Varner Unit and is a full-time college  student in the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary Bachelor Degree Program. He is also a former SATP Counselor and PAL program mentor. Robert and his college classmates have completed 75 hours so far. He believes that the students have already began making the environment safer for security, staff and inmates through their positive effect on others. One of the most  effective methods he has come up with for turning your life around is steps he learned between his time  teaching SATP and PAL programs: Robert says, “We must, with practice and effort, become  accountable for our words we utter, thoughts we obsess over, actions we take, attitudes we embrace and  motivations that we have.” He sincerely believes that even forms of mental disorders can be overcome  with this bible based principle of holding self accountable. God bless and thank you all.

Robert L. Williford, Jr.

P.O. Box 600 – ADC# 091357

Grady, Arkansas 71644