Missouri prisoner paroled after 241-year sentence for robbery committed at 16
Bobby Bostic, a Missouri prisoner who was sentenced to 241 years in prison for a robbery when he was a teenager, has been granted parole.
In a news release Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri announced that Bostic would be released from prison — where he’s been since 1995 — late next year.
Bostic, 42, was convicted of kidnapping, as well as multiple counts of robbery, armed criminal action and assault in St. Louis. He was 16 at the time and committed the crimes with an 18-year-old. At one point a gun was fired, causing a grazing injury to one of the victims.
Bostic was initially not eligible for parole until he was 112 years old.
But a bill signed by Gov. Mike Parson earlier this year made minors convicted of non-homicide crimes eligible for parole after serving at least 15 years in prison. The law went into effect on Aug. 28.
Through that bill, Bostic, as well as about 100 other prisoners, were able to apply for parole, according to the Department of Corrections.
The ACLU on Monday said they will provide Bostic with courses to “ease his re-entry into society” ahead of his release.
In recent years, Bostic has become the face of a movement to end harsh sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes in Missouri.
In 2018, retired Missouri circuit court judge Evelyn Baker, who sentenced Bostic more than 20 years ago, told The Washington Post she regretted her decision.
“I see now that this kind of sentence is as benighted as it is unjust. But Missouri and a handful of other states still allow such sentences,” Baker wrote in The Post at the time.
Baker’s call to action was soon echoed by 75 leaders in the criminal justice community, including a former acting attorney general, former U.S. solicitor general and former FBI director. They called on the U.S. Supreme Court to grant Bostic clemency.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that juveniles sentenced for crimes other than murder must have “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.”
“The prejudices that let us believe as a society that teens who commit crimes are beyond redemption are still borne by those who remained imprisoned decades after mistakes that they made as juveniles,” Tony Rothert, the ACLU of Missouri’s Director of Integrated Advocacy, said Monday.
“Bobby demonstrates what we all know: who we are as children does not forever demarcate who we can become as adults,” he added.
The Star’s Jeanne Kuang contributed.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 11:10 AM.
