“Even in sorrow, we are given a choice: A choice between hopelessness of despair and the everlasting promise of faith. Faith that there is a plan and that in times of doubt, God will speak to you in a voice that is clear and true.” —The Book of Job
Last year a heartbreaking story where the juvenile justice system and Mormonism intersect crossed my path. Through a connection I met a bishop’s wife in Pennsylvania who wrote her story of befriending a young man on life without parole (LWOP). Cindy Sanford is a conservative Mormon whose art shop included some works of Ken Crawford, a local prisoner who painted wildlife portraits on fallen leaves he’d found out in the prison yard. When her shop closed she wrote Ken to let him know she could no longer sell his works. Through persistence on his behalf, a pen pal relationship was formed. Cindy was overcome by anxiety and distrust every step of the relationship – is this young man trying to get money out of her? trying to waste her time and emotional effort? was he going to turn out to be some psychopathic serial killer?
It turns out that Ken had been imprisoned as a teenager to life without parole for a double murder that occurred near Cindy’s home over a decade prior. Growing up Ken had been unloved and abused, he eventually ran away from his abusive foster homes until he found a crowd that took him in. He was with one of his new “friends” – drunk and high – when they hitchhiked with local campers. During the night Ken’s friend shot and killed the couple who had picked them up. Ken claims he was asleep until the murderer woke him up and got him to drive the getaway car. According to Pennsylvania sentencing laws, both the murderer and the accomplice are given equal sentences.
As Cindy learned Ken’s horrific story, her heart was softened. The young man she eventually went to meet in maximum security prison was nothing like the monster described in the news media she remembered. Could a murderer/accomplice actually have come to God and changed his heart? In prison Ken nurtured the prisoners around him, even from solitary confinement row. He protected the weak and mentally disabled prisoners, captured and rehabilitated injured birds from the yard, and produced such breathtaking art without ever having one art lesson. The stories she heard about life behind bars broke her heart. Could beauty grow in the ugliest of gardens?
God put Ken Crawford in Cindy’s life for a purpose. She has been changed. Her family has been changed. They now consider Ken a son and brother. Cindy has found purpose in life through prison ministry. They have watched a child of God who was treated horrifically bring hope and happiness to a place foreign to those concepts. Despite knowing he’ll never be married, have children, walk in the forest, or be free for the rest of his life – he dedicates his energy to lifting others any way he can.
Ken’s story begs the question: how do we apply the gospel principles of justice and mercy and love to our justice system? Are adolescents capable of rehabilitation? If so, should they be granted the opportunity? It is less money in the long term to rehabilitate a prisoner than to jail them for life. Are we shortchanging the atonement by advocating for capital punishment? How does this strengthen families?
As I’ve pondered these questions over the last year, I think of Paul the Christian-killer called to be the Christian-zealot. The apostles were called to support someone who helped stone their brother in Christ, Stephen; someone who killed and persecuted their family and friends. I believe it’s entirely possible that God calls the least of us to have great roles in changing others’ lives for good. The question is if we will let them.
For behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved. Alma 42:24
I wish I could say that Ken’s story has a happy ending. The United States is the only country in the world to sentence children to die in prison. In 2012 the Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama found that mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional. Each state takes their time to overturn their JLWOP policies and to decide if Miller v. Alabama should be applied retroactively. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania ruled to not to do so, which means unless CFSY can find a case to take to the Supreme Court for retroactive application, Ken will never be released. Cindy’s story was recently published as Letters to a Lifer: The Boy Never to Be Released and the royalties are being donated to MIMIC, a Philadelphia based charity for at risk kids–run by ex-offenders. If you are interested in her book click on the link above (as a library foundation member I’ll put a plug in for requesting a purchase from your local library). Cindy hopes her story will spark a conversation about the tragedy and consequences of sentencing children to die in prison. See Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth for more information about the juveniles sentenced to LWOP in the US. And for more information on Cindy, her project, or to see more of Ken’s art, click here.
The author has agreed to answer any questions you have. She’s done a lot of advocacy work and talked to victim’s families, so she can handle tough questions; but please be respectful.
Wheat & Tares 
Kristine A – a very bitter sweet story. Being from Australia, I shake my head at the legal system in the USA. Ours isn’t perfect – I can assure you, however we don’t have the death penalty and we don’t have publicly elected DA’s. I don’t really know how to respond to this story. Part of me feels ambivalent that it is just a natural consequence of a very flawed system, the other part of me feels angry that this kid will die in jail.
Your title of the post reflects my favorite text in an LDS hymn. Unfortunately we dont sing the last two verses of this – both of which are excellent. The last verse is in full, “How great, how glorious, how complete Redemption’s grand design, Where justice, love, and mercy meet In harmony divine!” It is the nexus of those three things IN the atonement that Eliza Snow wanted us to consider. I’ve come to learn that we all experience different levels of those elements. Some of us experience more justice, more love or more mercy than others. However, for people like Ken, who have experienced more than his share of justice, can expect – if he wishes – more mercy through the atonement of Christ. Life here is full of imbalances that are ultimately and incomprehensibly corrected through the atonement.
Unfortunately, stories like Ken’s reflect the human cost of a mass-media driven democracy, which is something the American founders never really envisioned. Policies are put in place which reflect trends and big-picture stats, policies which lump individual cases into broad categories which reflect popular fears and trends. (Other examples include “three strikes” laws, sex offender laws, and mandatory treatment for DUIs.)
The nice thing about it is that, although the pendulum swings tragically slowly, it does swing – and once the indecency and injustice of blanket rules like this one are made apparent to a large number of Americans, we usually see some action to roll back the tide. (That may no longer be so common as “the love of men waxes cold,” but I remain hopeful.) Thus, we’re seeing an increased awareness of the inherent injustice in, if not the fact of capital punishment, at least the application of it, in the US. And we’re becoming more aware that situations like Ken’s are unacceptable in an allegedly civilized society.
Jury is still out, you should excuse the expression, as to whether or not the US counts as such.
However, we have a long way to go. We still very much have a legal system, not a justice system. If we could get over cramming the courts full of kids possessing half an ounce of pot, maybe we’d have the time to wisely weigh true justice in cases like Ken’s.
I am heartened that prison reform seems to be gaining some traction.
I did a quick internet search on Crawford and Hanley’s case. Apparently one of them is lying, but who? For someone who is innocent, it might have helped immensely if he hadn’t gone on the lamb, forcing law enforcement to hunt him down. His better strategy, if he was truly innocent, would have been to contact authorities immediately and give his side of the story first. Things might have gone better if he had identified Hanley as the shooter immediately. He might have been hailed somewhat as a hero instead a willing participant. Anyway, as flawed as our system is, it works most of the time. Juvenile justice is always a tricky subject. Everyone’s a child till that 16 year old sticks a 9mm in your face. Most states have laws on to go about determining whether a youth should be tried as an adult versus a juvenile, and those kinds of decisions are subject to judicial review. What about the 18 and 16 year old brothers who stabbed to most of their family members to death in Oklahoma? What do you do?
Yes, it was a story of he said/he said. Which is exactly what happened to my sister in laws cousin in the Cassie Jo Stoddart case in Pocatello a few years ago. Both convicts claim the other did it while he watched. Only recently has the cousin recanted his assertion of innocence after a few years on life row. His heart is softening. That’s the thing about Ken’s case – I read the news reports, too, about how the other kid turned and made a deal but Ken never did bc he said he had nothing to admit or apologize for because truth was on his side and they would never imprison him for life when he didn’t do it. Sigh. I’m inclined to take his word for it.
But regardless, let’s say he was the mastermind and he did do it. He is changed from his 15 yo self. He could do a lot of good working with at risk kids. There are a lot of these stories where the kids definitely killed someone as a teenager….and they change and even the victim’s family forgives them and they advocate for their release. Scientific studies show adolescent brains aren’t fully developed and especially kids who end up here, a lot of them come from backgrounds who have never known love/attachment.
Recidivism studies vary greatly. Fro National Institute of Justice:
Bureau of Justice Statistics studies have found high rates of recidivism among released prisoners. One study tracked 404,638 prisoners in 30 states after their release from prison in 2005.[1] The researchers found that:
Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.
Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year.
Property offenders were the most likely to be rearrested, with 82.1 percent of released property offenders arrested for a new crime compared with 76.9 percent of drug offenders, 73.6 percent of public order offenders and 71.3 percent of violent offenders.
There will always be exceptions that tug at our heart strings, and rightly so. I don’t agree with the “their minds weren’t developed” at that age argument. I think it’s fair to assume they know right from wrong, that you don’t have the right to harm and take and steal, until proven otherwise. We should always keep an eye out for ways to rehabilitate. But, do you let the guy convicted of pedophilia back into the neighborhood by the park? It’s a complicated issue for everyone.
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments. Obviously, this is a very difficult, controversial topic—and it was with great angst that I decided to write Ken’s story. Ever present on my mind was the unrecoverable loss that innocent people suffered as a result of this crime.
Fifteen years have come and gone since Ken was sentenced to life without parole. He is no longer the 15 year old boy some of you read about in old newspaper reports, and he accepts full accountability for his poor choices that night. Ken does NOT claim that he is innocent—at the very least, he drove the getaway car and never notified the police. That level of participation is enough to earn one a life sentence in many states.
While I agree with those who suggest that even “kids” know right from wrong on issues as stark as this one, I don’t think we can appreciate how deeply a child’s psyche is affected by repeated abuse and neglect. Ken lived on “the street” from the age of 12, and he never had the love of a mother– OR a father. One has to value one’s own life before we can truly value the lives of others.
But the truth is, despite the terrible nature of this crime, today Ken is rehabilitated—and even the DOC acknowledges that. Ken was recently trained by the Department of Corrections to work with the mentally ill as a counselor. In that position, he is in charge of defusing tense situations and mentoring men with serious mental disorders. Clearly, this is not a job for those whom the D.O.C. does not trust.
So the real question is, what do we do with men like Ken? Is society well served by keeping someone like him in prison until he dies? Do we as Christians and Latter Day Saints acknowledge the reality that God loves Ken as much as he loves us—-and that God is great enough to heal and transform him?
For the answer to that, I look to the example of Saul of Tarsus—who was (like Ken) at least guilty of being an accomplice to murder. Through the healing powers of the atonement, Saul, the Christian-hater, became the Apostle Paul.
Maybe there is a lesson in that for all of us.
It sounds like Ken is doing amazing things with the limited freedoms he has.
Love the art work. Wondering how the leaves are preserved.
Thank you Cindy for sharing this story. I’m glad Ken has found ways to contribute in a positive way despite the circumstances in which he now lives.
Re:Idiat
I would never, ever recommend someone talk to police without having legal representation. Sadly, our system of justice is unequal–with those who have money to hire highly skilled legal representation ending up with more favorable outcomes than those who don’t have money.
There is a lot of research showing that the male brain–specifically the prefrontal cortex (which helps us inhibit impulses and organize behaivor) doesn’t mature until around age 25. Additionally, instability, neglect and/or abuse in childhood also negatively affects development of the prefrontal cortex. Poverty affects brain development, which is why it is so critical for us to do what we can as a society to see that every child grows up in an emotionally, physically and economically stable environment so they can develop to their highest potential.
Children don’t choose the circumstances of their birth. I’ve seen how people who suffered neglect and instability as children end up with lifelong deficits.
Thank you so kindly, Lois, for your compassionate understanding—you are far more understanding than I was initially.
The truth is, I totally understand when someone dismisses the juvenile brain evidence or concludes, like I once did, that anyone even remotely involved in something like this has to be a bad person. I was an “adult-time-for-adult-crime” kind of gal and proud of it.
What I could never have imagined is just how horrible the world is for some kids. I now am very active in prison ministry and visit 4 state prisons. So many of the stories break my heart. I have worked with kids who were sold for sex by their own parents, beaten unmercifully day after day—I even counseled one whose parents smeared feces in his face whenever he was punished.
It is SO easy for those of us who did not know that pain to say, “Come on, the kid knew right from wrong.” And please don’t misunderstand, I am not upset by those kind of judgments—I did it myself! I said all the those things and initially, I judged Ken unmercifully. With absolutely no evidence at all, I blithely concluded that if he was at all involved in a crime like this he was “unfixable” and incapable of redemption.
How terribly wrong I was. How horribly un-Christlike. What right did I have to dismiss one of God’s children in this way?
But I thank God for opening my eyes, through Ken. It has changed my life. It has changed my husband’s life. We LOVE prison ministry. The blessings that come from bringing hope to some of these truly despairing souls is indescribable. I thank God every day for the blessing Ken is to our lives—but also that I have found the mission God created me for.
—-Hedgehog asked about the leaves. Ken preserves them by painting coat after coat of a base paint before he creates the scene. And yes, he is as happy as you could possibly be serving a life sentence. He never complains, is always cheerful, always helping someone.
Blessings to all of you!
I’m ecstatic today: I just found out that the Supreme Court ruled their Miller ruling should be applied retroactively. All people who were sentenced as juvenilles to LWOP will be re-sentenced. This includes Ken. I’m sending a huge “HUZZAH” to Cindy and her family (and for all of their hard work) as they celebrate what this could mean for Ken.
http://fairsentencingofyouth.org/2016/01/25/u-s-supreme-court-holds-miller-retroactive-providing-review-opportunities-for-youth/