He was in his cell, waiting to be executed, and he asked as a last, See!

The backgrounds of these children are rarely a mystery. Statistical data reveals a staggering correlation between juvenile life sentences and environments defined by systemic failure. Most of these children come from “radioactive” settings—homes fractured by extreme poverty, neighborhoods ravaged by violence, and lives marked by physical or sexual abuse. When a 12-year-old commits a violent act, advocates argue, the court is often looking at the culmination of years of trauma that the state failed to intercept. In this context, sentencing a child to life without parole is seen by many as a second failure: the first being the failure to protect the child, and the second being the refusal to believe in their potential for change.