When Does Brain Stop Developing? Man Freed From Prison For Murder He Committed

Two brothers were sentenced to life in prison in 1980, but one of them walked free in May — and It all has to do with their 15-month age gap , the BBC reported Monday.

In August 1980, brothers David and Sammy Maldonado took a box belonging to Steve Monahan and his friends. When Monahan tackled 18-year-old Sammy Maldonado, his brother 17-year-old brother David stabbed him.

“I think I killed him,” David said at the time, crying.

Both brothers were charged with second-degree felony murder, even though it was David who killed Monahan. They were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole and were held at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution in Grateford, Pennsylvania.

David Maldonado, 15 months younger than his brother Sammy, was released from prison in May, even though he was the one who stabbed Monahan to death. The only reason he's walking away from life behind bars is because he was 17 when he committed the murder.

In a 2012 case, a high court ruled that life sentences for juveniles violated the eighth amendment of the constitution. Part of that amendment forbids “cruel and unusual punishment.”

In 2016, based on the case, judges decided to allow nearly 2,300 people across the United States who were sentenenced as children to be resentenced.

Read: Man Wrongly Convicted Of Murder And Imprisoned For 24 Years To Be Set Free

In December, David Maldonado said he transformed from drug addict to master’s degree holder. Since he was 17 when he killed Monahan, he was eligible to have his sentence lessened. The judge resentenced him to 30 years in prison and he was freed in May because he had already served 37 years.

“Because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform, they are less deserving of the most severe punishments,” Justice Elena Kagan said about the 2012 case. “Our decisions rested not only on common sense, but on science and social science as well.”

“Child Development and the Court: Justices Look to Science to Determine Children's Culpability,” a study done by the University of Pittsburgh, said, “adolescents who commit crimes do so during a tumultuous stage in their development that is marked by profound biological, psychological, emotional and social changes.”

During adolescence, areas of the brain such as areas of the frontal cortex and the cerebellum, become rewired. Brain development during adolescence involves regions of the brain that are key to regulate behavior and decision-making, causing more primitive behavior because regions of the brain responsible for reasoning have not finished developing. As adolescents’ brains mature, their actions are more likely to change and their behavior is more likely to reform, according to recent research.

Research has also shown that risk-taking is “virtually a normative characteristic of adolescent development.” As the brain matures, adolescents’ ability to make better decisions is increased.

“In short, adolescents do not think, reason, or process information like adults in part because they physically cannot. Youth are pulled into wrongdoing by friends, are impulsive and do not adequately consider all the possible consequences of their actions,” according to the Cardozo Law Review. “These physiological and psychological distinctions should be of enormous import to parole boards considering the fate of adults who committed their crimes while still teenagers.”

Read: How To Make Your Brain Become Mentally Stronger

Using the reasoning behind the 2012 case, the Maldonados' lawyer Michael Wiseman described Sammy, 18 when David stabbed Monahan, as a “fully mature adult, capable of making the same decisions as a 40-year old.” He described David, 17 when he stabbed Monahan, as “a juvenile with a still-developing brain.”

“Sammy didn’t do the stabbing, he got beat up — but he was 18 years old. He is far less culpable than David.”

When Sammy was asked if he felt like he was an adult at the time of the crime, he said, “No. I can answer that emphatically. I was immature, I was impetuous. When you’re young like that you’re easily influenced.”

Still, Sammy will continue to serve life in prison even though he is not the one who stabbed the victim to death.