DETROIT – "White Boy" Rick Wershe has a key hearing this week about his potential release from prison.
Wershe is serving a life sentence. He has spent the past 29 years in prison as a nonviolent juvenile offender. The Michigan Parole Board will hold a hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday in Jackson to determine whether he will be released.
LIVE UPDATES: 'White Boy' Rick Wershe parole hearing
Wershe has been in prison since he was convicted of possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison. When he was 14, he was being paid by Detroit police to rat-out drug dealers. At 17, someone he had snitched on had him shot, and police abandoned him. Wershe began selling drugs, but was caught.
He is the longest serving juvenile drug offender in the history of Michigan.
Originally, his sentence did not include the possibility of parole, but the Michigan Constitution no longer allows juveniles convicted of drug charges to receive life sentences without the chance of parole so his sentence changed.
READ: The Story of White Boy Rick
Thursday's hearing
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson. No cameras are allowed inside the hearing room.
Stick with ClickOnDetroit for updates throughout and after the hearing.
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