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Second Chance Kids 1x54

What happens when prisoners convicted of first degree murder as teenagers are given the chance to re-enter society? From Ken Dornstein, the filmmaker behind the multiple Emmy Award-winning FRONTLINE series My Brother’s Bomber, comes a look at the fight over the fate of some 2,000 individuals following a landmark 2012 Supreme Court ruling that found sentences of mandatory life without parole for juveniles unconstitutional. Drawing on the experiences of prosecutors, defenders, the families of the murder victims, and several offenders themselves, Second Chance Kids examines the impact of the order to re-evaluate thousands of juvenile murder cases. With unique access, the film follows the cases of two of the first men in the United States to be released in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling — Anthony Rolon and Joe Donovan of Massachusetts. Both men had been given a life without parole sentence during the country’s crackdown on juvenile offenders in the “superpredator” era. As other juvenile offenders across the country await their potential re-sentencing, the film asks tough questions about crime and punishment in America, and what happens when some offenders are given a second chance.

 

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