Public Safety & Justice Active Updated Aug 16, 2026
The push for life sentences in reckless child killings
Jacob Freytes, 12, was shot dead riding his bike to a Mount Eden bodega, and his mother is now pressing Albany to extend the mandatory life-without-parole sentence that currently applies only to intentional child killings so it also covers reckless ones. The fight tests whether a grieving family's push turns into an actual bill in a legislature that has not moved on the issue since a narrower 2010 law.
The story so far
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Aug 16, 2026 Latest
President Trump interrupted a Long Island speech to embrace Jacob Freytes' parents and voiced support for the 'Jacob's Law' push in Albany, which would extend mandatory life-without-parole sentences to reckless child killings.
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Aug 9, 2026
Jacob Freytes's mother pushed to have "Jacob's Law," named for her 12-year-old son, introduced in Albany to mandate life without parole for reckless, not just intentional, child killings.
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Aug 2, 2026
Jacob Freytes, 12, was buried Saturday in Parkchester a week after he was shot in the chest riding his bike to a Mount Eden bodega during a street fight; William Ferrer, 45, is charged with murder and attempted murder and has pleaded not guilty. Jacob's mother, Migdalia Martinez, called on Mayor Mamdani to back a law extending mandatory life-without-parole sentences to reckless killings of children, not just intentional ones.
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