Hartford — A 33-year-old woman who has been incarcerated since she was 14 has become the poster child as lawmakers consider a bill that changes juvenile sentencing laws and enables juveniles who were tried as adults to get a "second look" before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

In its third year before lawmakers, a proposal to bring state law into compliance with two U.S. Supreme Court decisions appears to have gained the momentum to make it law. The state Senate passed the bill with a 31-5 vote on April 22, and it is expected to receive a favorable vote in the House of Representatives now that Republican leaders who had opposed it have given their blessing.

About 200 sentenced prisoners whose cases already are under appeal based on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions, would get a chance at earlier parole hearings if the bill becomes law.

One of those prisoners, Robin Ledbetter, has convinced supporters, including author Wally Lamb and volunteers in Lamb's writing group at the Janet S. York Correctional Institution, that she is rehabilitated. According to court records, Ledbetter fatally stabbed a taxi driver in Hartford on Feb. 23, 1996 during a botched robbery with a male friend. A jury convicted her of felony murder and she was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Ledbetter's name came up repeatedly during a March 4 public hearing. 

"Scientific research, done after Robin went to prison, tells us teenagers are not just little adults," said a letter submitted by Harriet and Stanley Hendel, a New York couple who said they visited Ledbetter at the Niantic women's prison more than 40 times and would house her if she was released.

"Their immature behavior is directly a result of their immature (and incomplete) brain development. Giving a second chance to people like Robin sends a clear message of the possibility of redemption," the Hendels wrote. 

Old Lyme attorney Beth Hogan, who has represented Ledbetter in appeals and served on a working group to reform the juvenile sentencing law, said she wrote to Ledbetter as soon as the bill passed the Senate.

"All this would do is give her an opportunity when she reaches the 30th year of her sentence to have a parole hearing," said Hogan in a phone interview.

"What this bill does not do is guarantee that anyone will be released from incarceration," said state Sen. Eric D. Coleman, D-Bloomfield. "Rather, the bill provides an opportunity for a person who committed an offense at less than 18 years of age to appear before a board of parole and receive the benefit of scientific and psychological evidence during that hearing."

The bill eliminates life sentences for offenders who committed crimes as juveniles, requires courts to consider youth as a mitigating factor when sentencing someone who committed a felony offense between the ages of 14 and 18, enables earlier parole hearings for those who were under 18 when they were sentenced to 10 or more years in prison and requires judges to order presentencing reports for juveniles convicted of felony offenses.

The Connecticut Sentencing Commission — comprised of judges, attorneys, police, parole and correction officials —homicide crime. The Connecticut Supreme Court, citing Miller, Graham and other U.S. Supreme Court cases, in February overturned the 100-year prison sentence of Akeem Riley, who was convicted of fatally shooting a man in Hartford at age 17. Riley's case was sent back to the trial court for resentencing.

Attorneys who represent juveniles have for years been citing studies that the brain is not fully developed, particularly when it comes to reasoning and judgment, during the teenage years. In his submission to lawmakers, Lamb, the author, included excerpts of a Ledbetter essay in which she writes about her immaturity.

"When I committed my crime, I did not yet understand the concept of death," she wrote.

Ledbetter wrote that when she eventually came to understand the value of human life, she was "drowning" in guilt and attempted suicide three times. She pulled herself together and went on to get her General Equivalency Diploma, and certificates as a certified nursing assistant and alcohol and drug counselor. She takes college courses through Wesleyan University and serves as a mentor in prison support groups. She received a PEN America award for writing completed under Lamb's direction.

Now, Lamb told the lawmakers, Ledbetter has become "a mature, responsible and fully rehabilitated young woman." 

Ledbetter's codefendant, Lucis Richardson, 36, also is serving a 50-year sentence for the crime he committed as a juvenile, though his case has not been mentioned in connection with juvenile sentencing reform.

A collection of college professors from throughout the state has supported the bill, along with friends of Nicholas Aponte, a 37-year-old man who was sentenced to 38 years for taking part, at age 17, in a North Haven sandwich shop robbery that left a man dead.

The only opponents who presented written testimony or spoke in opposition to the bill were two survivors of murder victims and State Victim Advocate Natasha Pierre.

Pierre said the bill is "an exaggerated interpretation" of the Supreme Court decisions and that juveniles convicted of serious violent crimes "should expect that such criminal conduct will have significant and severe consequences."

John Cluny of Norwich, whose wife and son were murdered by 15-year-old Michael Bernier at the Cluny home in Norwich in 1993, had driven to Hartford in past years to speak in opposition to the proposed reforms. This year Cluny submitted written testimony.

"You get tired of running up there, because they're going to do what they want anyway," Cluny said in a phone interview. "The court system lies. They say he (Bernier) will never get out, and 25, 30 years later they renege on what they say."

Cluny, who is 72, said he has longevity in his favor, since his mother is still alive at 101 years old, and that he plans to testify at parole hearings for the former family friend who killed his wife and son. Bernier, who was sentenced in 1995 to 60 years, has been receiving time off his sentence for good behavior and could be eligible for parole in less than a decade, according to Cluny.

"He'd better not get out while I'm alive," Cluny said. "And if he gets out, who's going to hire him?"

Politicians have "floating values, based on what's popular," Cluny said.

"Wait until they become a victim and see how they feel," he said. "Intellectually comprehending it and dealing with it are two different things. Unless you've experienced the real horror of it, you can't relate to it."

Cluny had come home from his machinist's job at Electric Boat on May 24, 1993, to find his wife, Elaine, and 14-year-old son, David, dead of gunshot wounds to the head. 

Jack Holden, whose 30-year-old son, Kyle Holden, was murdered in East Hartford in 1999, wrote to oppose the potential resentencing of Jamaal Coltherst, who was 17 when he and Carl Johnson carjacked and killed Holden. Coltherst is currently serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

"Please stop the suffering my family has gone through for the last three years with this potential resentencing of this thug hanging over our head," Holden wrote in his letter to lawmakers.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN