DOVER, Del. (AP) - Charles Blizzard was sentenced by a Delaware judge in June to a year of probation after pleading guilty to offensive touching.
That's a far cry from the life sentence he was given for the fatal beating of a man in 1982, when Blizzard was 17 years old.
Blizzard, now 52, was released from prison in 2014, one of more than a dozen convicted killers in Delaware who were resentenced after initially being given life in prison for crimes committed as juveniles.
After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed mandatory life without parole for juvenile killers in 2012, the General Assembly revised Delaware's sentencing laws in 2013.
Lawmakers mandated a minimum sentence of at least 25 years for anyone convicted of first-degree murder for an offense committed as a juvenile.
Life without parole also remains an option for juveniles who commit murder in Delaware, but they are entitled to petition for a sentence review after serving 30 years.
Since the law was changed, 14 juvenile offenders serving life have been resentenced.
