Joe Ligon
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May 3, 1938
Joe Ligon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joseph Ligon May 3, 1938 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Known for | Longest serving US prisoner convicted as a minor (served prison sentence from aged 15-82) |
Criminal status | Released |
| Conviction | First degree murder (2 counts) |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment without parole; later vacated |
| Details | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
Joseph Ligon (born May 3, 1938) is an American convicted murderer and former prisoner. He was America's longest-serving prisoner who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by association and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole as a juvenile, at the age of 15. After the Supreme Court had ruled in Montgomery v. Louisiana that all mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences were retroactively unconstitutional, he was released without parole in February 2021 after a federal court vacated his sentence, having spent 68 years in prison.
Ligon was born on May 3, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second oldest of four children. His mother was a nurse, while his father was an auto mechanic.
He grew up on a farm in Birmingham, Alabama, with his maternal grandparents and had a difficult early life. Ligon did not grow up with many friends, and instead remembers spending most of his time with his family, such as watching his grandfather preach in a local church on Sundays.
At age 13, Ligon moved back to South Philadelphia to live in a blue-collar neighborhood with his family. He attended Thomas Durham School, where he was enrolled in the "orthogenically backward" ("O.B.") program for special education. At the time he dropped out of school, he was in third or fourth grade, had not played any sports and was not able to read or write.[1][2][3]
Murders and sentencing
On February 20, 1953, while living in South Philadelphia, Ligon was part of an alcohol-fueled stabbing spree with five teenagers that resulted in the death of Charles Pitts and Jackson Hamm and the injury of six others. He met up with two teenagers he knew casually and they came across two other teenagers, previously unknown to him, who were drinking wine. They began robbing people in order to try and purchase alcohol.[2]
After Ligon was arrested, he claimed he was not permitted legal representation or family visitation and signed confessions put in front of him by the police. The attorney instructed him to plead guilty to the murders at the one-day trial. Ligon and the other defendants had a one-day trial and they were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.[2][4]
At the time of his trial, Ligon admitted to stabbing Clarence Belvey in the chest who survived the attack. He has affirmed his guilt for the stabbing and expressed remorse subsequently. He has repeatedly denied being responsible for either murder.[2][4][5]