Henry Montgomery, at center of juvenile life debate, is free

By REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Officials have released the inmate who was central to a Supreme Court case that extended the possibility of freedom to hundreds of people sentenced to life without parole as juveniles. Seventy-five-year-old Henry Montgomery was released from prison just hours after he was granted parole Wednesday. He went to the offices of a nonprofit which is supporting him after his release. There he was embraced by tearful staff and former juvenile lifers who were freed as a result of the court case that bears Montgomery’s name. Montgomery had been convicted in the 1963 killing of an East Baton Rouge sheriff’s deputy who caught him skipping school. Montgomery was 17 at the time.