NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee prisoner says he shouldn't have to serve a life sentence for a crime committed when he was 14 — a slaying that garnered international attention in 1997 because prosecutors said it was part of a satanic ritual.
In legal filings, Jason Bryant points to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that juveniles should not be sentenced to life in prison except in the most extreme cases. Those involved in the slayings deny it was part of any sort of ritual.
At 15, Bryant and five other young people from Kentucky pleaded guilty to killing a couple and their 6-year-old daughter, and gravely injuring their 2-year-old son after kidnapping them at a rest area in east Tennessee. All six were sentenced to life without parole.