Rough Justice in Mississippi

Late last December, Robert Earl ("Bubba") May Jr., 14, was arrested with three companions for using a shotgun to rob two fireworks stands near the sleepy farm town of Brookhaven, Miss., and stealing a wallet. Two nights later Bubba and two of his accomplices robbed a grocery and beat up a saleswoman. Indicted on four counts of armed robbery, he was convicted only a week later. His sentence: 48 years in prison without chance of parole, the product of a plea bargain by his court-appointed attorney.

Bubba, 4 ft. 7 in., 75 lb., was packed off to join 1,800 felons at Mississippi's overcrowded state penitentiary at Parchman. Predicted Ronald R. Welch, director of the Mississippi Prisoners' Defense Committee: "He'll never live out the sentence."

But by last week it appeared that Bubba's case would be reopened. In the meantime, he is undergoing psychiatric examination at Parchman, where he is being protected by a trusted lifer assigned him by the warden. Says Defense Counsel Julie Ann Epps: "He's a terrified little boy who really doesn't understand what's going on. He doesn't know what 48 years is."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.