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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A man sentenced to life in prison for a murder he committed as a teen is on track to go free soon in an example of a Wyoming case affected by a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The Wyoming Board of Parole on July 19 granted parole for 41-year-old Jonathan Roderick. Roderick was 15 when he shot an 84-year-old man during a 1991 burglary near Glenrock.
Originally, Roderick got life with no possibility of parole. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders and last year said the ban applied to those already serving such sentences. Wyoming changed its law, and now juveniles sentenced to life terms here become parole-eligible after 25 years.
The change affected 13 Wyoming inmates, including one freed in 2015.
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