Missouri prisoner sentenced to 241 years as a teen seeks freedom. Will Gov. Parson act?

A legal technicality has kept Bobby Bostic in prison for years. He has lost one appeal after another seeking relief for crimes he committed when he was just 16 more than 25 years ago.

A bill in the Missouri legislature briefly provided a glimmer of hope this year, but the coronavirus pandemic derailed lawmakers’ efforts to provide Bostic another chance to argue for his freedom. Now, the 41-year-old Missouri man is likely to die in prison if he is not granted clemency by Gov. Mike Parson.

Bostic won’t be eligible for parole until 2201 — more than eight decades from now.

Even the judge who handed down a 241-year sentence now says she deeply regrets what she did. Imposing a life sentence without parole on a child who has not committed murder, the judge wrote, “is unfair, unjust and, under the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision, unconstitutional.”

“This is one of the greatest injustices in sentencing in modern times,” Bostic wrote in an email to The Star Editorial Board.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Bostic’s appeal that a 241-year prison sentence for a robbery and kidnapping conviction violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Citing legal precedent, attorneys for Bostic argued that teens can not be sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed before adulthood.

Parson’s office declined to comment on Bostic’s case.

More than 30 rehabilitation classes and programs

But there could be a sliver of hope for Bostic, a published author who says he has completed more than 30 prison rehabilitation classes and programs. In April, Dimetrious Woods, a convicted nonviolent drug trafficker, was granted clemency in Missouri.

It was the first time the Missouri governor had used his power of clemency, and perhaps it opens the door to Parson finally considering action in other cases, including Bostic’s.

Clemency for Bostic “is something that could be done right away and should be done,” said Cliff Sloan, the attorney who filed the Supreme Court brief on Bostic’s behalf.

There is bipartisan support for granting Bostic a parole hearing, but such efforts stalled in the Missouri legislature this spring during a truncated session that was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. House Bill 2201 would have allowed prisoners serving life in prison who were under the age of 18 when they committed a crime a chance at probation or parole after 15 years.

Sponsored by Republican state Rep. Nick Schroer of St. Charles, the legislation was derailed by the COVID-19 outbreak. His measure never made it onto the House floor for debate.

“I worked with many groups and legislators from both sides of the political aisle on this commonsense reform, which I firmly am of the position would have passed and become law but for the unprecedented situation we are in today,” he said.

Bostic’s trial judge regrets sentence

Bostic was 16 when he and an 18-year-old accomplice were arrested in St. Louis and charged with robbery, kidnapping and armed criminal action.

A jury found him guilty at trial, and Judge Evelyn Baker sentenced him to 241 years. Bostic’s co-defendant pleaded guilty and was ordered to serve 30 years in prison.

Now retired, Baker has said in recent years that she regrets not taking into consideration that Bostic was a child when he committed the crimes.

Some of the victims Bostic robbed also have written letters of support for him.

Bostic’s efforts to get a Supreme Court review were unsuccessful. His best and perhaps only path forward is clemency. The decision now rests with Parson.

With the judge and some of the victims in Bostic’s case voicing support for a shorter sentence, the governor should take action to right this injustice.