@timrequarth
ON A RAINY MORNING in the fall of 1993, Antonio House made a choice he would come to regret. House, who had turned 19 just two months earlier, was a member of the Unknown Vice Lords gang on the South Side of Chicago; his job was to sell drugs for the Lords. When he showed up at his corner that day, a fellow gang member relayed a message from the boss to drive down to some nearby railroad tracks instead. Once House arrived, he realized he was being asked to be a lookout. In a decision that would alter the course of his life, he stuck around. A few moments later, he heard eight gunshots. His boss had just shot two rival gang members.
House quickly drove off— later, he claimed he was unaware there were going to be murders, but it didn’t matter. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. Illinois law mandated that he be sentenced to life without parole— the same sentence that applied to his boss, who orchestrated the murders and pulled the trigger.