A Supreme Court ruling gave Henry Montgomery his first chance at freedom after nearly a half-century behind bars. Two years later, the 71-year-old Louisiana man is still waiting for a parole hearing that could set him free, the Associated Press reports. Thursday is the two-year anniversary of the high court’s ruling in Montgomery’s favor. The decision enabled about 2,000 inmates to argue for their release after receiving mandatory life-without-parole sentences as juveniles. Louisiana’s parole board was scheduled to hear Montgomery’s case on Dec. 14 but postponed the hearing until Feb. 19. Montgomery was 17 when he killed a sheriff’s deputy in 1963.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional “cruel and unusual” punishment. The justices made their decision retroactive in Montgomery’s case. The decision led to a wave of new sentences and the release of inmates from Michigan to Pennsylvania, Arkansas and beyond. Other former teen offenders are still waiting for a chance at resentencing in states that have been slow to act. In Michigan, prosecutors are seeking new no-parole sentences for nearly two-thirds of 363 juvenile lifers. Justice Anthony Kennedy said prisoners like Montgomery “must be given the opportunity to show their crime did not reflect irreparable corruption; and, if it did not, their hope for some years of life outside prison walls must be restored.” A state judge who resentenced Montgomery to life with the possibility of parole said he’s a “model prisoner” who appears to be rehabilitated.