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Teen lifers: Michael Lehman is in a prison of his own making

26.05.13

Life, imprisoned

· Read about convicted killers Warner Batty, Kwilson Coleman and Dwayne Morningwake in the Life, imprisoned series.

· Read about the effect in Pennsylvania of the Supreme Court's decision making it unconstitutional to have mandatory life sentences for teens who have been convicted of murder.

This is the story of one of those convicts now in limbo.

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M ichael Lehman thinks about that night every day. June 18, 1988. It was a Saturday. It was the night Kwame Beatty was murdered.

Every day, he thinks about what he did that day and what he did that night. He remembers walking across the field to the Children's Home group home in North York, listening to the others talk about what they were going to do when they got there. He remembers them talking about "getting their stuff" from the home, not sure that they were, indeed, conspiring to kill the 23-year-old counselor.

He remembers entering the building and being told to stay upstairs while the three others went to Beatty's bedroom. He remembers sitting in the hallway, holding a knife, told to prevent anyone from leaving their rooms. He remembers hearing some noise and climbing down the stairs to see what was happening. He remembers peeking into Beatty's room and being told to get back upstairs.

Source: York Daily Record