Jared Stephens had been convicted of only one previous crime in Florida, a misdemeanor. - Florida Department of Corrections/Florida Department of Corrections/TNS
MIAMI — The crime that Jared Stephens committed is not in dispute. The question is whether he should die in prison for it. On a stormy September day in 2016, Stephens — a former wrestler at Arizona State University who became homeless after years of untreated schizophrenia — walked into a Best Buy in Sweetwater. He snatched a $399.99 laptop, stuffed other merchandise totaling $157.96 into a brown Publix tote bag and tried to walk out without paying. Confronted by employees, he resisted, then pulled his own laptop out of a backpack and did something extraordinarily irrational. “Look, I have chi...
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