Karen Rena Howell is currently serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in Tennessee. At the time she was sentenced, Karen was a child who was forced to accept a plea deal of life without the possibility of parole in order to save her four adult co-defendants from facing the death penalty. The injustice in this is that Karen was literally a child who sacrificed what was in her own best legal interest just so as to save 4 adults from facing execution and it’s time we help right this wrong.

 
The United States is the only country in the world that permits youths to be sentenced to life without parole. In June 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles convicted of murder cannot be subject to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
 
According to neuropsychologist Dr. Pamela Auble, Karen was suffering from major depression, severe, with psychotic symptoms. She was suicidal and experiencing hallucinations. She suffered from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and was at risk for dissociative episodes because of sexual abuse she suffered as a child. 
 
Karen did not kill or intend to kill anyone. Ballistic reports show that Karen had no gun residue on her. Karen has endured more than 24 years of incarceration for ultimately being a scared child who was not able to aid in the planning of the crimes, or to intervene and stop the killings. Karen is a kind, caring, compassionate human being who deserves a chance to prove that she is no longer the person she was when she entered prison as a teenager. She entered prison when she was still a child and in those 24 years, she has grown into a mature woman who has completed all the programs made available to her including obtaining her GED.
 
Karen deserves the opportunity to spend time with her mom, and her family after she has spent her entire adult life in prison.
 
It’s time once and for all for the State of Tennessee to grant Karen commutation and her immediate release from this unjust sentence which she received as a child.
Please add your name to this petition asking Governor Bill Lee to grant commutation for Karen Howell.