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Adolfo Davis had been 14 years old for just two months when he made the mistake that changed his life.
In October 1990, he was living on Chicago’s South Side with a grandmother who could barely care for him. His father was gone. His mother was a drug addict. He was teased because he often wore the same clothes to school. He committed petty crimes to get money for food. He found family in a gang, and one night, two much older gang members brought him along on what he believed was going to be a robbery. Two men were killed, though Davis never fired his gun.
An 8th grader when the crime occurred, Davis was tried as an adult, convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
On March 20, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether juveniles like Davis should receive life sentences without parole for murder. The cases in front of the court involve 14-year-olds from Alabama and Arkansas, but advocates hope that the court will rule in favor of the youths and extend its ruling to all who committed murder as a juvenile. Already, the court has ruled unconstitutional sentencing laws providing life terms for crimes other than murder and has outlawed the death penalty for juveniles.
Since Davis was sent to prison, he has turned his life around, according to his attorneys. He has renounced his gang membership, has gotten an education, writes poetry and helps steer youngsters away from the gang life. Next month, the now 35-year-old who has spent two decades behind bars _ more years than he was free _ will have a hearing before the Prisoner Review Board; he is seeking clemency from Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. He has support from clergy and even some job offers.
Because Davis is not eligible for parole, a commutation is his only option to prove he has been rehabilitated and deserves his freedom.
“He should have a chance to have a chance. Right now, he doesn’t have the opportunity to show somebody he’s been rehabilitated,” said attorney Joshua Sohn, a lawyer with the firm DLA Piper in New York, who argues that Davis’ sentence is too harsh for someone so young. “He’s acknowledged he was there and he’s responsible for what he did. But it’s not too late to save his life and give him an opportunity. That’s all he wants.”
In Illinois, where Davis was sentenced, the laws on juvenile murderers date to the late 1970s, when crime by juveniles was on the rise. The violent crime wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, much of it tied to the crack cocaine epidemic, hardened tough-on-crime views, as did predictions of a generation of super-predators.
So it is that in Illinois children as young as 13 can be sentenced to life without parole, often in cases in which the sentence is mandatory. At 15 or older, juveniles can be sentenced to life without parole even if they merely acted as a lookout or the driver of a getaway car and were unaware that their co-defendants had weapons or were planning to commit murder.
Those predictions of super-predators, however, never came to pass. And advances in our understanding of brain development show that juveniles have little impulse control or the capability to fully consider or appreciate the lifetime of consequences some of their actions hold. At the same time, experts say juveniles have a greater capacity for rehabilitation, particularly if they are given the right treatment.
What’s more, advocates say offenders so young cannot meaningfully help with their defense. Mandatory life without parole sentences, meantime, strip judges of the opportunity to consider the background or other circumstances that might argue against a natural life sentence.
Not that advocates want all juveniles released. They simply say the door should never shut to the possibility of a life outside prison.
“It’s not a guarantee of parole. It’s the opportunity for parole,” said Lawrence Wojcik, an attorney at the firm DLA Piper in Chicago and the lead author of a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the American Bar Association. “A juvenile has a less developed sense of right and wrong. They should have the opportunity to prove that, at some point, they have been rehabilitated and they are fit to rejoin the community.”
Opponents say that murderers sentenced to life without parole, no matter how young, do not deserve the chance to be free. Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins is among those opponents. She worked hard to end the death penalty in Illinois but parts company with fellow criminal justice reform advocates on this issue, in large part because it will force the families of victims to again confront tragedies when inmates apply for release.
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Baby No. 2 is on the way for Bravo reality star Kim Zolciak and her husband Kroy Biermann.
The 33-year-old “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star and the Atlanta Falcons defensive end have a 9 month-old son, KJ. Zolciak tells Life & Style that she is now four months pregnant with his little sister or brother.
In the magazine, Zolciak admits KJ was an “oops,” but that this pregnancy was “totally planned.”
Zolciak and Biermann were married in Georgia on Nov. 11, 2011.
Zolciak has two daughters, Brielle, 15, and Ariana, 9, from a previous marriage.
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First Lady Michelle Obama is coming to The Late Show With David Letterman. Mrs. Obama will be his guest on Monday, March 19th with Musical Guest Esperanza Spalding.
Beyonce may be teaming up with Tom Cruise for her next movie role. Cruise’s name is being attached to the movie A Star Is Born to be directed by Clint Eastwood. Filming is supposed to start later this year, but they need a leading to star with Beyonce. This will be the fourth time this movie has been made: the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason and 1976 with Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. In other Tom Cruise news, his new movie, with Mary J. Blige, Rock Of Ages opens in theatres on the first of June.
Iyanla Van Zandt is getting her own show on the OWN cable network. Iyanla: Fix My Life debuts later this year. Another show on OWN that is not doing well is The Rosie Show. The show is five months old, but is suffering from low ratings and no buzz. Rosie O’Donnell is not happy in Chicago, and she wants to move the show to New York. She is under contract through 2013. Will the show make it?
Who is making money off of Whitney Houston’s death? Well, all fingers are pointing to Pat Houston. Pat Houston is married to Whitney’s brother Gary. She also served as Whitney’s manager. Pat Houston is being blamed for taking the infamous casket photo and selling the photo to the tabloids for thousands of dollars. Sources say Cissy Houston has confronted Pat, told her to donate the money to charity and save the family from the embarrassment of her actions. During the Oprah interview with Whitney’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, over 3.5 million people watched. There were products placed around the house because Pat Houston made deals on those products. She has been making deals since the death of Whitney Houston over a month ago. During the interview with Oprah, she said she was mad at who published the casket photos…. not at who took the photos. Hmmmmmmmm! What is going on here?
Meanwhile, Bobbi Kris is going to have to be watched. She wants to change her name to Kristina Houston as she distances herself from her father Bobby Brown. Bobbi Kris wants to embark on an acting and singing career. She is also getting very close to her unofficial adopted brother, 22-year old Nicholas Gordon. He was unofficially adopted by Whitney when he was 10. He and Bobbi Kris are very close, and have acting in a manner that is not brother and sister like. Bobbi Kris is in state of turmoil since her mother’s death. She’s been leaning on Gordon for support, but is he taking advantage of her for his own financial gain? Friends are also worried about Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mom. The family betrayal has torn apart her heart. Bobbi Kris won’t stay with her in New Jersey. Cissy feels with Bobbi Kris being in Atlanta, the influence of the wrong people will come into the mix. Meanwhile, Bobby Brown just returned from Africa with New Edition. He is very hurt by the actions of his daughter, and how people keep trying to drag his name through the mud. So far, he has been quiet. But, when he opens up, what will he say?
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What appears to be snow is actually spider webs blanketing an Australian farm. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)
Thousands of normally solitary wolf spiders have blanketed an Australian farm after fleeing a rising flood.
Reuters reports that the flooding has forced more than 8,000 Australian (human) residents from their homes in the city of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. But for every temporarily displaced person, it appears several spiders have moved in to fill the void.
“What we’ve seen here is a type of wolf spider,” Owen Seeman, an arachnid expert at Queensland Museum, told Reuters. “They are trying to hide away (from the waters).”
The Australian Museum’s entomology collections manager Graham Milledge told Reuters that there’s even a term for the phenomenon, “ballooning,” and that it is typical behavior for spiders forced to escape rising waters.
You can watch a video here of researchers on the hunt for ballooning spiders from the safety of a hot air balloon.
Thankfully for local residents, the occupying arachnids are not likely to set up permanent residence, a la the 1977 William Shatner clunker “Kingdom of the Spiders.” Weather reports say the flood waters in Wagga Wagga have begun receding, meaning that locals will soon be returning to their homes and the wolf spiders will also be returning to their natural underground habitats.
A dog casually walks through the ballooning spider webs (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)
And it turns out the spiders are actually doing quite a bit of good while setting up shop above ground. The spiders are feasting on mosquitoes and other insect populations that have boomed with the increased moisture brought about by the rising waters.
“The amount of mosquitoes around would be incredible because of all this water,” Taronga Zoo spider keeper Brett Finlayson told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The spiders don’t pose any harm at all. They are doing us a favor. They are actually helping us out.”
As amazing as this display may be, it’s not the first time photographers have captured massive displaced spider migrations. One of the most famous pictures of 2011, above, showed millions of spiders and other insects in Pakistan that had formed massive web clusters in trees to escape rising floodwaters.
“It was largely spiders,” Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development, told National Geographic. “Certainly, when we were there working, if you stood under one of these trees, dozens of small, very, very tiny spiders would just be dropping down onto your head.”
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