“The world knows me as Graham v. Florida,” says Terrence Graham. “I just want people to know that there’s more to Graham v. Florida than just a case.”

Graham was 17 years old when a Florida judge sentenced him to die in prison. He was 37 when he came home last month.

Graham was the plaintiff in the 2010 landmark Supreme Court decision that found that sentencing juveniles to life in prison without parole for nonhomicide offenses constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the 8th Amendment. It was one of a series of Supreme Court decisions that reflected an evolving understanding by courts that kids are different.

In 2002, when Graham was 16, he was charged with armed burglary as an adult after he and two other teenagers robbed a Jacksonville restaurant. The charge carried a possible life sentence, but he took a plea deal and was given credit for time served in county jail and put on probation. Six months later, just a month short of his 18th birthday, he committed a home invasion.

At his 2006 sentencing hearing for that crime, a Florida judge told the then 19-year-old that he had squandered his second chance: “It is apparent to the Court that you have decided that this is the way you are going to live your life and that the only thing I can do now is to try and protect the community from your actions.”

The judge could have given him five years, but instead sentenced Graham to the maximum: life without the possibility of parole.

Eight years later his case would be in front of the Supreme Court on appeal. The justices would find that sentence unconstitutional, noting that “it does not follow that [Graham] would be a risk to society for the rest of his life.”

The majority opinion noted that at the time, there were 129 juveniles convicted of nonhomicides who were serving sentences of life without parole across the country, a significant majority of whom (77) were serving sentences in Florida.

Following the Supreme Court decision, in 2012 Graham’s original judge in Florida resentenced him to 25 years in prison—the maximum sentence allowed.

Over his 20-year incarceration, Graham earned his GED, took college classes, and found solace in his faith. He’s passionate about family, sports, and prison reform. He also co-founded Plead the 8th, a nonprofit working to end the incarceration of children in Florida’s adult system.

The state ranks third in the country for the number of individuals who have been incarcerated since they were kids—around 2,600. Graham’s case and others only led to resentencing for youth who were sentenced to life without the........

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