"Where is the shaved head and the big ball and chain?" asked small, terrified, 14-year-old Barney Lee. Barney had not found San Quentin Prison all he expected.
Last April 29 Barney shot and killed his 36-year-old uncle, Nickoli ("Dick") Payne, at their ranch in the Monterey County mountains, because he had been "bawled out" for not doing his chores. His sentence: life.
Said State Parole Board Chairman Booth B. Goodman: "I've seen a lot of tough 14-year-olds and this boy is not one of them." The prison chaplain, Father George O'Meara, and San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy, the judge and the...