Juvenile Lifers of Allegheny County

The Common Pleas Court of Allegheny County has imposed mandatory sentences of life without parole in the state’s adult prison on 37 teenage boys. All 37, some of them now in middle age and beyond, are now being resentenced. Their new hearings come in the aftermath of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have declared such sentences unconstitutional “cruel and unusual punishment” for juveniles. 

Seven Duquesne University journalism students, enrolled in an Investigative Reporting class in the spring 2017 semester, set out to tell some of their stories and to explore the criminal justice issues involved in these and other such cases.  This website contains the results of their work. The students and I present that work here in the hope of raising public awareness – just as our own awareness has been raised. 

The students and I hope that you find these stories interesting and enlightening. 

Maggie Jones Patterson, Professor of Journalism, Media Department, Duquesne University 

Students: 

Emalee Sekely, editor 

Casey Chafin 

Milos Damnjanovic 

Jordan McNally 

Sean Ray 

Matthew Voggel 

Stephanie Wilkinson