He received 75 years for murder but hopes to go free under new sentencing rules for juvenile lifers – NJ.com

James Comer spent his early years in Newark at his grandmother’s house, where people smoked crack and gambled for days on end. Outside, there were more drugs — and violence, he told a psychiatrist in 2018.

As a boy growing up in the mid-80s, Comer filled time throwing bottles at walls with his friends. He later graduated to stealing cars in middle school, and by 14, he was selling drugs.

Shortly after his 17th birthday, an older cousin, Dexter Harrison, convinced him and his best friend, Ibn Adams, to help do armed robberies. On April 17, 2000, the trio stole a car and committed four armed robberies, one of which ended with Adams shooting and killing George Paul, a 35-year-old father from Irvington.

Comer was convicted for his role in the crime and sentenced to 75 years in prison with no chance of parole for 68 years. He spent more than a decade in New Jersey State Prison before launching a fight for freedom in 2013 with help from attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a prominent law firm. They argued the sentence he received was unconstitutional and inconsistent with recent court rulings that juveniles — no matter the severity of the crime — are not as culpable as adults.

In the coming weeks, after more than 21 years in prison, he will go before a judge with the hope of becoming eligible for parole following the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling last month that teenagers convicted of serious crimes can have their sentences reconsidered after 20 years.

Comer, now 39, is among dozens of New Jersey prisoners serving lengthy sentences for crimes committed before they turned 18 who may be re-sentenced and paroled after a review of their case.

Still, the Essex County Prosecutor’s office and his victim’s sister oppose any reduction in sentencing.

Comer’s court appearance comes amid a nationwide movement to reexamine how the criminal justice system treats youth convicted of capital offenses and follows a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in recent years that have come down in favor of juvenile lifers.

Legal experts and criminal justice advocates say the rulings acknowledge that teenagers who commit serious crimes are not as culpable as adults, and are primed to be rehabilitated and should not be punished as harshly.

“The court has made a significant statement about the importance of really giving children who commit even the most serious of crimes, the opportunity to demonstrate growth, maturity and rehabilitation,” said Marsha Levick, co-founder of the nonprofit Juvenile Justice Center in Philadelphia, which advocates for youth.

Lost dreams

As a child, Comer dreamed of using his athletic prowess in basketball and football to go to college.

That dream kept him motivated as a young student, but it became untenable as his family moved a lot, sending him to at least eight different schools.

“He had no stability in his life,” Tracey Eddie, his aunt, wrote to a judge in 2018 to support a sentence reduction. “He basically raised himself.”

Comer never knew his biological father. His stepdad routinely abused his mom, Sharon. He saw people shot and killed on the streets and can remember gunfire ringing out throughout the many neighborhoods where he lived. It became such a part of his life that “all you could do when you heard gunshots was duck, and then try to just get up and go on with your life,” Comer told Dr. Richard Dudley, the psychiatrist hired to examine him.

The violence left him anxious and angry. So, he turned to marijuana to cope, getting high each morning before heading to elementary school to stay “calm,” he told the psychiatrist.

Comer started committing crimes in the mid-90s, around the time Money magazine called Newark “The Most Dangerous City in the Nation.”

He was in middle school, and older guys in the neighborhood were teaching him how to steal cars and sell the parts. A couple of years later, he started selling drugs.

He knew it was wrong and could lead to prison, but it was all he knew.

Besides, “going to jail seemed normal, and almost like a ‘rite of passage,’” he told the psychiatrist.

Deadly crime spree

People in the neighborhood had warned Comer about Harrison, his cousin, but Comer said he wanted to prove “he wasn’t a little kid anymore.”

So when Harrison asked him and his friend, Adams, about helping rob people, they went along.

On April 17, 2000, after the trio stole a car, committed two armed robberies, and shot and killed a man, they did two more robberies before the vehicle ran out of gas and they got caught.

It would be Comer’s last day of freedom.

Harrison later testified against Adams and Comer, who rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a 20-year sentence.

After a two-week trial in December 2003, Comer was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree conspiracy to commit armed robbery, four counts of first-degree robbery, six counts of third-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, four counts of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and third-degree theft.

Harrison received a 20-year prison sentence for cooperating and has since been released. Adams is scheduled to be released in 2061, according to prison records, though he is also challenging his sentence.

Nationwide movement

In the years following Comer’s conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court, in cases since 2005, determined that factors such as youthfulness and brain development must be taken into account when sentencing juveniles. The rulings have led to banning the use of capital punishment, limiting life without parole sentences, and eliminating the use of mandatory life without parole for minors, according to Sentencing Project, a research center that advocates for decarceration.

Nationwide, there are nearly 1,500 juvenile lifers, according to the Sentencing Project. That’s a 44% reduction in the number of teenagers who were serving life without parole sentences in 2012, and 25 states, including New Jersey, have banned life sentences for youth, the organization said.

Levick, of the Juvenile Law Center, said the high court has “dramatically refashioned sentencing for children.”

“(Courts) are considering a significant amount of scientific and developmental research that establishes key differences between children who get caught up in criminal offending and adults,” she said. “Those key differences include not only culpability and blameworthiness, but unquestionably of course, a very distinctive capacity for rehabilitation and change and transformation.”

As systemic changes were occurring, Comer’s life was unraveling. He had joined a prison gang and was charged with fighting in 2006 and 2008 and locked up alone in administrative segregation for two years.

During that time, he learned that his mother had been beaten nearly to death by a new boyfriend. It was a reality check, according to court records, that put him on a path to bettering himself.

He began reading and educating himself while enrolling in self-improvement courses.

‘Children are different from adults’

In 2013, Comer started a legal battle for his freedom with the help of attorneys Alexander Shalom, of the ACLU, and Larry Lustberg, of Gibbons P.C.

His lawyers successfully argued that his sentence was unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the previous year in Miller vs. Alabama that factors like youthfulness and upbringing should be considered when sentencing juveniles.

In 2017, New Jersey passed legislation eliminating life without parole for adolescents convicted of murder, and the state Supreme Court mandated that juveniles convicted of murder have a chance at parole.

Comer’s sentence was reduced to 30 years without parole the following year.

“This Court finds that (Comer) grew up in an environment that forced his criminal behavior,” the 2018 ruling said. “The reality of criminal behavior as a way of life was inescapable…”

But his attorneys still contended that those incarcerated on lengthy sentences should have them reexamined sooner.

The New Jersey Supreme Court agreed after looking at Comer’s case. Last month, in a 4 to 3 decision, it ruled that juvenile offenders sentenced to long prison terms may ask for a sentencing review after 20 years of incarceration. Judges must consider factors such as childhood circumstances, maturity, and ability to reform.

“The law recognizes what we all know from life experience — that children are different from adults,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in the majority opinion. “Children lack maturity, can be impetuous, are more susceptible to pressure from others and often fail to appreciate the long-term consequences of their actions.”

When Comer appears during his upcoming hearing, a judge will consider his childhood, exposure to violence, and rehabilitation while incarcerated.

Assistant Prosecutor Roger Imhof said the Essex County Prosecutor’s office has repeatedly opposed any reduction to Comer’s original 75-year sentence and will do so for this recent challenge. He noted the severity of the crime, Comer’s previous prison gang affiliation, and various infractions, including fighting during a prison basketball game in 2014.

He added that George Paul’s sister opposes the reduction, as well. Multiple attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful.

But Comer’s attorneys contend he has a strong case for parole eligibility.

“What I thought to be true, that people could change, I watched it happen. I have seen this maturation,” said Shalom of the ACLU. “…He recognizes that all eyes are going to be on him now that he is this statewide, if not national, face of this legal issue.”

If paroled, Comer wants to restart his life in a quiet neighborhood, seek mental health and substance abuse counseling, and mentor troubled youth, his attorneys said.

His psychiatrist said the one thing he doesn’t need is continued incarceration.

There is “no reason to believe that additional incarceration is necessary or important to Mr. Comer’s successful reentry,” he wrote.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.