James Comer is greeted by friends and family upon his release from Northern State Prison in Newark on Oct. 17, 2025. (Photo by Steve Hockstein/HarvardStudio.com)
A man whose criminal case helped redefine juvenile justice in New Jersey left prison Friday after nearly 26 years behind bars, a release civil rights advocates celebrated as an affirmation of their decade-long fight against extreme prison sentences for minors.
James Comer was 17 when he was sentenced in 2003 to 75 years behind bars — with no possibility of parole for 68 years — for a deadly 2000 robbery spree in Newark in which he was an accomplice but not the triggerman…