Quantel Lotts

Quantel Lotts (born 25 October 1986) is an inmate at the maximum security prison in Charleston, Missouri, serving a life sentence for murder committed when he was 14 years old. Lotts' sentence forbids parole; the 2010 United States supreme court case Graham v. Florida prohibits life sentences to minors, except in cases involving homicides.

Childhood
According to testimony before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Lotts' mother used and sold crack cocaine from their house. Lotts was taken from his home when he was eight, smelling of urine, with rotting teeth, and with scars all over his body from beatings. Lotts was also molested as a child. After living in a series of homes Lotts moved in with his father in St. Francois County, which is rural and predominantly white.

While Lotts states that his childhood was violent (his uncle was killed in front of him from gunfire when he was 11), retrospectively from prison he states it was often a happy one.

Killing and sentencing
In November 1999 Lotts killed his stepbrother Michael Barton during a fight involving first a blowgun, then a bow, and finally a hunting knife, in St. Francois County, Missouri. Lotts states that he has little memory of the event and did not intend to kill his brother. Lotts was convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, by Missouri's St. Francois County Circuit Court in 2002. His mother states that race was a factor in her son's trial, since he is black, and her stepson was white.

While incarcerated Lotts married a woman who had read about his case; their ceremony was attended by his mother.

Press commentary
As of 2009, Lotts was one of 2,000 people serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed while they were minors, and according to the Equal Justice Initiative, one of 73 serving such sentences for crimes committed while only 13 or 14 year old. Laws in the United States began sentencing juveniles with far greater severity following an increase in juvenile crime during the 1970s and 1980s.

While court decisions have moved against capital punishment or life imprisonment for many juvenile offenders, no consensus exists to forbid life imprisonment in cases involving homicides. For this reason the plight of very young offenders like Lotts has received additional attention from opponents of harsh sentences for juveniles.