(WWJ/AP) A 30-year-old man who was a teen when he helped his older brother kill a woman in St. Clair County will get a chance for parole under a new sentence.
Raymond Carp was 15 years old when Maryann McNeely was stabbed beaten to death in her Casco Township mobile home in 2006.
He was convicted and automatically sentenced to life in prison. But a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions is giving so-called juvenile lifers an opportunity for shorter terms.
Judge Michael West sentenced Carp to at least 25 years in prison, which means Carp will be eligible for parole after another 11 years.
According to a report by the Times Herold, St. Clair County Assistant Prosecutor Hilary Georgia said the prosecutor's office decided against pursuing a life sentence for Carp after evaluating the circumstances of his case.
Factors such as Carp's upbringing, his level of participation in the offense and the involvement of another defendant did not warrant a life sentence, Georgia told the newspaper.
Carp told the victim's family that he's "truly sorry" and is working to be a "better man."
Related
In 2010, the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 350 people sentenced to life in prison without parole for offenses they committed when they were juveniles, resulting in a federal court ruling that the state law was unconstitutional.
After that, Michigan and other states were forced to change the way they sentence teens after the U.S. Supreme Court said minors can't automatically be given life prison terms.
Carp remains in the Chippewa Correctional Facility.