I am Cragg Hardaway, currently I am 37 years old. At the tender age of 16 I was charged and ultimately convicted of first degree murder of 11 year old Robert Yummy Sandifer. I received a 60 year prison sentence which was a commonality among many juvenile offenders under the 1990’s Super-Predator era that sentenced youth as adults and in many cases the juvenile had harsher sentences than adults.  These sentences were based on crime, punishment and deterrence, not rehabilitative potential that the current juvenile reform has called for and our United States Supreme court has mandated.

In 1994 I (16) and my brother Derrick Hardaway (14) was charged and convicted of the shooting death of Robert Yummy Sandifer. I was convicted of being the trigger man and the state alleged that my younger brother Derrick was the get away driver.

Currently I have been in jail for almost 22 years. It has been deemed unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court for a juvenile to receive a life sentence and has given each state the opportunity to correct these sentences and make it right.

I hear by ask current Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner to grant me clemency.