Robert Springsteen IV’s death sentence was officially commuted to life in prison on Wednesday by Gov. Rick Perry.
In 2001, Springsteen was convicted for the December 1991 shooting death of 13-year-old Amy Ayers in a North Austin “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!” shop. Also killed were Eliza Thomas, 17, and sisters Sarah, 15, and Jennifer, 17, Harbison.
Four boys originally were accused of the crime. Robert Springsteen IV, 17 at the time, was convicted and sentenced to death. Michael Scott, 17, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The accused ringleader, Maurice Pierce, 16, was released after prosecutors admitted they did not have enough evidence to bring him to trial. And Forrest Wellborn, 15, the accused lookout and driver, was not indicted by two grand juries. All charges against him have been dropped. Pierce remains under investigation.
Springsteen participated in the crime just 11 days after his 17th birthday. Had he been 16, he would not have been eligible for the death penalty.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing someone for crimes committed under the age of 18 was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. That order forced Perry to commute all death sentences given to juveniles to life in prison.
When Springsteen was convicted, Texas law did not allow for life without parole, so, for him, a life sentence actually equals 40 years. After serving 40 years, Springsteen would become eligible for parole.
Perry also commuted the sentences of 27 other condemned men. Texas was one of 18 states that allowed juveniles to be sentenced to death.
The 28 men will soon move off of death row.
Among the Texas killers affected by the Supreme Court ruling are:
 | | Efrain Perez and Raul Villarreal of Harris County, convicted with three others of the gang-rape and beating deaths of 14-year-old Jennifer Ertman and 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena. Perez and Villarreal were 17 at the time. |
| | Jorge Alfredo Salinas, who at 17 carjacked a man in Hidalgo County in July 2001, fatally shot him in the head, and left the man's 21-month-old daughter to die of dehydration and exposure strapped in her car seat in a brush area near the Rio Grande. |
| | Eleven of the juvenile murderers on Texas' death row were convicted in Harris County. One of them, Johnnie Bernal, was one day shy of his 18th birthday when he shot and killed Lee Dilley as he stood outside a Houston drive-in with his high school prom date. |
