Parole Board Agrees To Release Man Convicted At 17

The Massachusetts Parole Board has agreed to release a 36-year-old man who was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for a 1996 stabbing death in New Bedford.

The board released a unanimous decision Wednesday saying Anthony Rolon can be freed after spending one year in a minimum-security prison.

The decision comes after rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that sentencing juveniles to life sentences without the possibility of parole is unconstitutional. Rolon and more than 60 other state prisoners sentenced to life in prison as juveniles were affected by the court rulings.

Rolon was 17 when he fatally stabbed 20-year-old Robert Botelho Jr. in New Bedford in 1996.

Botelho's family and prosecutors say they're upset with the Parole Board's decision.