In 2001, Shawn Hatcher was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison for murder. Prosecutors used a Tennessee law to charge him with a crime he says his brother committed. He was 17 years old.
The concept of criminal responsibility for conduct of another isn’t particularly new or unheard of. It’s been a part of American common law – the sets of laws inherited from past judicial decisions – since at least the 19th century. And it’s been an official part of Tennessee’s state code for decades.
“[It was] a law which I wasn’t aware of at the time,” Hatcher said. “I was a child. I didn’t even have a GED, I hadn’t even graduated high school. So I was ignorant to that.”…