Hello, I am John Cryer and welcome to the Undisclosed Addendum.

In our last episode of Undisclosed, Omar 60 and Walnut, the team delved into the account of JR, one of Terrence Lewis' supposed accomplices, and Susan spotted a new piece of evidence that had those of us at home screaming Brady violation at the top of our lungs.

So with us this week is Colin Miller, one of the hosts of Undisclosed. He's also an associate dean and professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, and he blogs at Evidence Prof. Blog.

Hey there Colin, welcome back. And we have Susan Simpson. She is also a host of Undisclosed, and she's an attorney at the Ball Club Law Group. She blogs at view from ll2.com. Welcome Susan.

Hey.

And also with us today is Xavier Mechalreth Bay, who's a senior advisor and national advocate at the campaign for the fair sentencing of youth.

He's also a co-founder of the incarcerated children's advocacy network, telling the stories of leaders who were formerly incarcerated as youth.

And Xavier has been fighting to abolish life without parole for children in America, and in recent years has played a role in ending the practice in several states, including Nevada, Utah, Arkansas, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Welcome to the show Xavier.

Thanks for having me.

So I have to say your story is extraordinary. My understanding is that by the time you were 13, you'd already been arrested 19 times.

So can you tell us a little bit about how your life came to that place?

Yes. Well, most of my arrest interesting enough came very, very fast, beginning at the age of nine years old when I was arrested for, you know, makes my pointy.

But suddenly a candy bar from a grocery store and when that happened, obviously I was just a very young and petrified risk taking you know nine year old, who obviously didn't think ahead and I paid a heavy price was arrested.

I was taken to the police station. My mother signed me out and a little traumatizing. I have to admit, but sadly it was really just indicative of that particular arrest was indicative of the poverty I was living in.

The struggles I had at home, the lack of structure and really just extreme abuse neglect and in other factors and unfortunately didn't really mean much to just to implement that time.

At that moment I was just in a feeling youth and by the time I was 13 years old, had already been involved in gangs had already committed multiple arrests.

Had already unfortunately been placed in detention seven times had been a victim of a gunshot at the very young age of 11 years old and sadly at that very same age of 13, I was sent into the department corrections for 25 year, 25 years sentence for first of remurder.

I was guilty, I pled guilty. And receiving that sentence, obviously at that age it seems like a lot of years away that I'll ever be free. I had very little hope, but I was fortunate to have people who advocated for me who believed in me, who surrounded me with a community of care, in particular a public defender, a wonderful, very supportive minister and priest who worked in the United Tension Center, a great GD instructor, a wonderful college professor.

There's many people that I met along the way to help to still the belief within me that I could change and that I couldn't something better in my life and fortunate I had that opportunity.

Unlike many in our justice system, I did have a light in the tunnel and because of that I believe as maturity and remorse began to evolve in my life, I became more confident in my ability to come out and start a new and thankfully I've been out and out for 15 years.

Came out at age 26, with a bachelor's degree today, I had a master's degree, I have a six year old daughter, a very typical life, a very normal life, despite the travel and occasionally speaking in gay men and being able to talk on a podcast with one of four amazing people who I look up to is older than that.

I would just say that I'm blessed to have a normal life, to have a good day, to live, breathe and recreate myself and start a new life in free society versus having to live out in the existential nightmare of a life without a pro sentence, which is what they could have given me when I was 13.

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