The longest-serving US prisoner was released after 68 years in prison: how he lives - ForumDaily
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The longest-serving US prisoner was released after 68 years in prison: how he lives

He was called the longest-sitting prisoner in America, sentenced to life in prison as a minor. Now Joe Lygon, who has recently been released from prison, can no longer be called a minor, although he is surprised a lot like a child when he returns to our world, which he has not seen for almost 70 years. In an interview with World Service correspondents Bi-bi-si Lygon talked about how it happened that he waited so long to be released, and how he intends to spend the rest of his life.

Photo: video frame YouTube / CBS This Morning

“I have never been completely alone [in prison], but by nature I am a loner. I prefer to be alone as much as possible. In prison, I was in solitary confinement the entire time, from the time I was arrested until the day I was released.”

“For people like me, who want to be alone, it even helps: as soon as I got into the cell and the door was closed behind me, no matter what happened, I didn’t see or hear anything. My company was radio and television—when they were allowed.”

Yes, in a certain sense, this life suited Joe Ligon. Prison conditions allowed him to keep a low profile, keep quiet, and avoid trouble—something he learned after being incarcerated for 68 years.

And when at the end of the next day he returned to his cell, it did not bother him that he was alone again. It was a bit of a conscious choice.

“I had no friends in prison. I had no friends in freedom. But I treated all the people I came across as friends. And everything was great, we got along with each other,” he says.

“But I didn’t use that word—“friend.” I realized that for people like me, the choice of words means a lot. And many will tell you: if you call yourself a friend, you can be very mistaken.”

Laigon, by his own admission, was a loner before jail. During his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Birmingham, Alabama, he had few friends.

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He recalls that he always enjoyed spending time with family members. He remembers listening to the sermons that his other grandfather gave at the local church on Sundays.

When Ligon was 13, he moved from the deep south to Philadelphia with his father, mother, and younger sister and brother. His father worked as a mechanic, his mother as a nurse. The family settled in a blue-collar, working-class neighborhood.

Laigon had a hard time studying at school—he couldn’t even read or write. He was also not interested in sports, and he had practically no friends.

“I didn’t really hang out anywhere. I was one of those people who had one or two friends, that was enough for me, I wasn’t looking for big companies.”

And when Lygon got into trouble that Friday night in 1953, he didn't even really know those he happened to meet on the street. They roamed the area together and came across a drinking campaign.

“We started asking them for money to also buy wine, and so... word for word, off we go...”

He falls silent. But then he admits that that evening ended with a stabbing in which he participated. As a result, two were killed and six were wounded.

Lygon was arrested first. In the police, he said, he quite honestly said that he could not name those with whom he was that evening.

“And even the two I knew—I didn’t know their names, just their nicknames.”

Laigon says he was taken to a police station far from home and held there for five days without access to legal assistance. According to him, his parents were not allowed to see him.

A week later, 15-year-old Joe was charged with murder - which he always denied, although he later admitted in an interview with US television network CBS that he stabbed one man, who survived. Ligon said he regrets it.

“The police began to slip papers for me to sign, in which I confessed to involvement in the murder. I didn't kill anyone! "

Pennsylvania is one of six American states where life imprisonment does not include the possibility of early release.

Lygon went through a guilt hearing, where he admitted the facts of the case. In the end, the judge called him guilty of aggravated murder on two counts.

The teenager was not even present at the announcement of the verdict: compulsory life imprisonment without the right to parole for that time was a predetermined outcome of such cases.

And so it happened that he went to jail, not knowing for how long. It didn't even occur to him to ask anyone about it.

“I didn’t even know what to ask. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true,” says Ligon. “I knew that I would have to serve time, but I had no idea that I would be in prison for the rest of my life.” I have never even heard such words - “the right to early release.”

“I want to tell you what a dysfunctional child I was: I couldn’t read or write, I couldn’t even spell my name. I knew I was Joe because that’s how I’ve always been addressed as far back as I can remember.”

Lygon says that once in prison, he was more confused than scared. He was worried that he was torn away from his family.

It looks like Lygon, a prisoner in AE 4126, never wondered how long he still had to sit. For more than 68 years, he changed six prisons, each time adapting to the routine of the next place of detention.

“They wake you up at 6 in the morning through a loudspeaker or simply with a voice: “Everyone stand up for roll call, it’s time for roll call”... At seven o’clock there’s a meal, at eight they start work.”

Sometimes Ligon worked in the kitchen or laundry, but mostly as a janitor. At noon there was another meal, and he returned to his duties. In the evening, roll call again, then dinner. Life in prison has not changed for many years, which cannot be said about the outside world - over the past decades it has changed irrevocably for Laigon.

“I didn’t get involved with drugs, I didn’t drink alcohol in prison, I didn’t do any of those crazy things that lead to murder, I didn’t try to escape, I didn’t get anyone in trouble,” he recalls.

“I was as quiet as possible - prison taught me that, among other things: don’t meddle in other people’s business, always try to do the right thing and stay out of trouble as much as you can.”

At about 53 years in prison, Lygon was told that a lawyer wanted to see him.

It was Bradley S. Bridge, inspired by the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that juveniles could not be executed, and decided it was time to bring attention to the next major legal issue: the plight of juveniles who had received life without parole.

There were 525 such inmates in Pennsylvania at the time, which Bridge said was the highest in the entire United States. 325 of them were in Philadelphia, and Lygon served the longest.

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The meeting took place.

"He didn't even know what he was sentenced to," said Bridge, a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association. “He didn’t know anything until I met him.” The interesting thing is that he never lost hope, he was absolutely optimistic from the very beginning, always hoping that something could be done.”

That meeting with Bridge opened Lygon's eyes. When the lawyer showed him a copy of the appeal against the verdict, Joe first learned of the conditions of his detention.

“I realized that I had been treated wrongly since the day I was arrested. They explained to me, and I understood that sentencing a minor to life without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional.”

In 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that the sentences of all life imprisoned prisoners who went to prison as a minor should be reviewed.

The next year, Laigon was sentenced to 35 years in prison, which meant he could apply for parole given the time he had already spent in prison.

Bridge advised him to do this, but Lygon flatly refused. He believed that his sentence was unconstitutional from the very beginning - so why should he ask for parole, after which his behavior and all actions would be under police surveillance?

Then Bridge decided to challenge the 2017 verdict and, in the end, brought the case to federal court, where in November 2020 the judge ruled in favor of his client.

When Bridge arrived at the prison to pick up Ligon on February 11, he seemed unusually calm: “I expected a stronger reaction, like, 'Oh my God!..' But he had none of that. No external experiences, nothing.”

It's likely that Lygon was simply behaving the same way he had for decades - keeping his thoughts and emotions to himself.

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He remembers the day he left the correctional facility. He felt a sense of amazement: “It was like being born again. Everything around me was new—almost everything had changed.” This is especially noticeable in cars and buildings, he emphasizes.

Those 68 years in prison cost Lygon dearly. He understands that he lost a lot of time waiting for release, when, according to the original sentence, he had no right to him. He could spend this time with his family, many of whose members have already passed away.

And yet, 83-year-old Joe is trying to adjust to the life of freedom he has been waiting for. He has some plans. In fact, he would like to do what he is used to and what he does best.

“I'm going to do the same thing I've done my whole life. Give me a job as a cleaner or janitor."

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