Conditional Parole Approved For Man Sentenced To Life In Prison As Juvenile
BOSTON (CBS) - The Massachusetts Parole Board has unanimously ruled that a man sentenced to life without parole as a juvenile can be freed from prison as early as August 2015.
Frederick Christian, 37, was convicted of first degree murder in 1998 for his participation in a deadly robbery four years earlier.
Read: Parole Board Ruling
Christian, who was 17 at the time, was not believed to have been the gunman.
As part of his parole conditions, he will have to complete an eight week program and spend a year in a lower security prison before he is released.
Christian is one of 63 inmates in Massachusetts who had faced a sentence of life in prison without parole for a crime committed as a juvenile.
All of those inmates will now have the eventual chance for parole after a December ruling byMassachusetts' highest court that struck down mandatory life sentences for juveniles.
The ruling followed a 2012 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that outlawed those sentences.
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