The judge who sentenced Bostic to life in prison in 1997 and advocated for his parole said so much has been discovered about brains of young people since then.
Bobby Bostic, a St. Louis man who was sentenced to a total of 241 years on 18 charges in 1997 for a robbery committed in 1995, has been granted parole after the judge who sentenced him retired and advocated for a change in his sentence.of people of Christmas presents being donated to a local family in need. Prosecutors said both men fired guns at the group, causing minor injuries, before stealing another woman's car and robbing her.
The sentence meant Bostic wouldn't be eligible for parole until he was at least 112 years old, essentially guaranteeing he would die in prison. She said the developments in medical studies of the brains of young people over the past 20 years gave her a new perspective into how crimes committed by young people don't always indicate future behavior because their brains are still developing and are more likely to be rehabilitated.
"What I learned too late is that young people's brains are not static; they are in the process of maturing," Baker wrote in her essay.