Under felony murder laws in the US, someone can be sentenced to life in prison for a murder they didn't commit, didn't intend, and didn't directly cause. In Michigan, one quarter of people serving life without parole were convicted of felony murder as of 2019. After being sentenced to LWOP at 19, Jamie Meade received a gubernatorial commutation and was released in 2025. In prison, Jamie furthered his education and earned a Bachelor of Arts and an MBA from Adams State University, as well as a Master of Divinity from the Chicago Theological Seminary. Many people, including the judge who sentenced him, the now-retired Third Circuit Court of Michigan Judge Sharon Tevis Finch, supported his release. In her 2020 support letter for Meade to the Michigan Parole Board, Judge Finch noted, “If I were sentencing today, had discretion, and was not bound by the mandatory sentence, I probably would have sentenced him to no more than his co-defendant…and Mr. Meade would have walked out of prison ...