Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later

Michael Lehman was sentenced to life at 14, freed at 44

Updated: 11:59 AM EDT Jul 24, 2020

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should someone be held accountable for the rest of their lives for crimes they committed as a minor? According to the Supreme Court, some may not have to anymore. Very few can point to the exact moment that changed the course of their life. But Michael Lehmann can. It was the night of June 18th 1988. Michael, then only 14 years old, met up with two boys he knew from his York Pennsylvania group home. Michael Duane, Morning Wake and Miguel Yoder went to see a known drug dealer from the area, Cornell Mitchell. He befriended the boys just a few days before. Together, the group devised a plan to rob a counselor at the home who they thought was too harsh and to rule oriented. They wanted to retaliate against Kwame A. BT's way of managing the group home. Michael would testify in court that he agreed to the plan because the others had threatened to kill him if he didn't go along with it and he didn't want to be seen as a wimp. He offered to act as a lookout and helped the group get inside Undetected explained that I had the window open. Hey, Where you going? In there. One of the home while we're all for our night and then a little big night, Wayne. Morning. Way. Get Miguel. You were gonna go downstairs with him. They appear. And as he waited, Michael said he heard a struggle and left his lookout post to see what was happening. The others wouldn't let him in quantities room. I went back upstairs down the hallway and I realized that they weren't just robbing and they were killing me. Kwamie was stabbed 21 times. After the attack, the group drove to the neighboring town of Harrisburg, where they dumped their knives and bloody clothes, then use the stolen money to buy bus tickets back to York. Police arrested all four of them. The following day, I realized I could have got out of it. But be any of that, I could've done anything. I pray to God. At his trial, Michael testified in his own defense. He thought that because he was just the lookout, he could set the record straight. But the jury didn't see it that way. Michael was found guilty of robbery, conspiracy and murder. At 15 years old, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Just everything Shut down. Well, yes, I was there. Yes, Look out. Yes, I told something. And yes, I help them evidence, but I didn't kill anyone. Michael was sent to prison to live out the rest of his days. That is, until the Supreme Court decision changed everything. In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory life sentence without parole should not apply to people convicted of murder as juvenile's in 2016 they decided that ruling should apply retroactively, meaning any juvenile convicted before 2012 should be given a chance of parole. At 45 years old, Michael was released in 2018. I held out for I. Pennsylvania has the highest number of juvenile lifers, with a total of 523. 200 have been released so far. States rehabilitation program for juvenile lifers helps them acclimated to life after prison. The program offers things like virtual reality sessions in prison to show them where they'll be living and support groups once they're released. They are not the juveniles that they were when they committed a crime, and because of that, we believe where I believe that they deserve a second. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the re offending rate of juvenile lifers is substantially lower than in the general prison population, where in Pennsylvania, about 60% of all parolees get rearrested within a few years of release. There's always a concern with any population that you deal with. We monitor all of our juvenile lifers closely until we feel comfortable enough where the juvenile lifer in question is actually proven that he's going to be successful. There are those, however, who aren't just hopeful about the program, like the state's lead voice for crime victims. Gen Storm. At some point, the cameras will go away. Some of the immediate resource is will go away. And are these people equipped to succeed? And I don't think we're gonna know that for 35 years. The Supreme Court's ruling wasn't welcome news for Sherry McMichael and Melissa Vaquero, whose brother, Steven Turner, was 11 years old when he was brutally murdered by their 16 year old neighbor. Because of the Supreme Court decision, their brother's killer will now be eligible for parole. You never get over it. You never, ever get over it. The pain is just a deep, the sorrows Justus deep and it just never goes away. I promised my mother on her deathbed that we would make sure that this man never got out of jail. Sherry and Melissa say they don't believe all juvenile lifers should be denied parole. They just want some discretion used in how convicted murderers air getting released. The pair are fighting to keep Stevens killer in prison. They're certainly going to be some unjust punishments. I've seen some of them. There's also going to be some that the key needs to be thrown away, and there's a reason why they gave them no parole. Our case, I feel, is one of them for Michael Lehmann. He thinks back on the night that changed his life often, but all he could do is move forward. When I got out of prison, I stepped out the front door. I took a breath and I started a new chapter in my life. I can't change anything. All I can do is try to be the best person I can be. In the year after his release, Michael secured full time employment, a driver's license and even found love. While it hasn't all been smooth sailing, Michael is grateful. And in those moments where it becomes too much, he has a place to go and reset. My vision was narrowed by fences and razor wire for so long to just have this view of just this expanses, you know, it's easy toe. Just take that deep breath and just let things go. We spoke with WGCL reporter Matt Barkero, who spent over a year with Michael, his story and many other juvenile lifers whose lives changed completely because of this court ruling. A lot of the juvenile lifers that we talked with compared their released being an infant where here they are has grown adults, but they're experiencing all these things for the first time. Something as simple as cell phones is also a really big hurdle for them, because those were things that when they were kids back in the eighties, some of the seventies, somewhere in jail, like sixties, never saw before I put myself in their shoes was something that I went to explore. Many juvie lifers described the guilt they feel with their release. Can you elaborate on this deal? I can't speak to all of them. But in the ones that we talked with, they do feel that they will never forget what they did. And Michael Lehmann doesn't want to forget. She thinks that keeping this burden with him, it's it's who he is, and it will help him continue on life. The guilt that they feel is here. They are getting their lives back. Essentially, they get to go home. They get to be with their loved ones, but they know the back of their head. Their victims families don't get that second chance. It was really important for Michael, aiming to explain what juvenile lifers are, what their experience really is because they're getting free. This story was a big endeavor. Was there any part of your experience working on it? That was particularly surprising. The biggest surprise for me in talking with these juvenile lifers was learning that freedom was not a celebration, and I just assumed that someone who's been in jail for 30 40 50 years on the day that they're released, you know, they're gonna walk out of the prison and just like the sun would be shining. And they're gonna just celebrate with their family, and it's going to be this big happy occasion. But we met many juvenile lifers who their release day was nothing like that. They just don't know how to take those first couple of steps. They're also leaving behind all of their friends. Think about it. You grow up in jail, your cell mates and the guys and girls on your on your block. I mean, those are the people that you have shared your whole life with. And now here you are being free and you're leaving everything you know. Back in jail, however, the families of victims reacted to these re sentence sings. So Kwamie Beaty's family is a good example of many families of victims of juvenile lifers. They were never expecting their loved ones killer to be free. They thought that this chapter in their lives was gonna be put to bed. And here we are 30 years later, and the possibility that their loved ones killer it's not gonna be living in their community again was something that they don't think is right. Some are trying to fight that, and Stephen Turner's family is still very concerned that John Waters is not a changed man, and if he is free that he could kill again. How did the local community react after W G. A. L special aired, a lot of viewers reached out to us and told us that they feel conflicted about this issue going into it. Maybe they did not believe that these juvenile lifers should ever have been released. But in seeing Michael, Story has one example, but also some of the others. They were able to put themselves in the shoes of these juvenile lifers and realize that maybe it was a mistake, a horrible mistake, but a mistake nonetheless, when they were 14 15 16 years old. And maybe you can redeem yourself. Maybe you can go through that process of prison and come out a better person.

Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later

Michael Lehman was sentenced to life at 14, freed at 44

Updated: 11:59 AM EDT Jul 24, 2020

In June 1988, Michael Lehman was the lookout for a crime in York, Pennsylvania. A crime that left Kwame Beatty, a 23-year-old youth counselor, dead. Four men who lived at the group home where Kwame Beatty worked were arrested for his murder, including Lehman. After he was convicted, Lehman was sentenced to life in prison. He was just 14-years-old.He fully expected to live out the rest of his life behind bars, until a 2012 Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Nationwide, these so-called "juvie lifers" had their cases re-examined. Pennsylvania, alone, had over 500. Michael Lehman was one of them. And in 2018, he was released.So much of todays news emanates from New York, Washington or Los Angeles, but what we know is that amazing, authentic and genuine stories are being told around the country every day. Each week "Dispatches from the Middle," which originally aired on Facebook Watch, takes a deep dive into one powerful local news story and gets a behind-the-broadcast look at how it came together.For stories like this and more, follow "Dispatches from the Middle" on Facebook Watch and subscribe to Stitch on YouTube.Read More: Project CommUNITY - Juvenile Lifers: The Long Road to Redemption

In June 1988, Michael Lehman was the lookout for a crime in York, Pennsylvania. A crime that left Kwame Beatty, a 23-year-old youth counselor, dead.

Four men who lived at the group home where Kwame Beatty worked were arrested for his murder, including Lehman. After he was convicted, Lehman was sentenced to life in prison. He was just 14-years-old.

He fully expected to live out the rest of his life behind bars, until a 2012 Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Nationwide, these so-called "juvie lifers" had their cases re-examined. Pennsylvania, alone, had over 500. Michael Lehman was one of them. And in 2018, he was released.

So much of todays news emanates from New York, Washington or Los Angeles, but what we know is that amazing, authentic and genuine stories are being told around the country every day. Each week "Dispatches from the Middle," which originally aired on Facebook Watch, takes a deep dive into one powerful local news story and gets a behind-the-broadcast look at how it came together.

For stories like this and more, follow "Dispatches from the Middle" on Facebook Watch and subscribe to Stitch on YouTube.

Read More: Project CommUNITY - Juvenile Lifers: The Long Road to Redemption

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Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later - WXII The Triad