Jesse Jackson’s half brother freed from life prison sentence

CHICAGO (AP) — An 80-year-old half-brother of the Rev. Jesse Jackson who was sentenced to life in prison more than 30 years ago after being convicted of hiring hit men has been released from prison. A federal judge ordered last month that Noah Robinson Jr. be freed over the objections of prosecutors. The judge cited Robinson’s age, risks posed in prison by COVID-19 and his deteriorating health. Robinson, an Ivy League educated wealthy businessman, had been locked up since his arrest in 1989 on charges that he hired hit men from Chicago’s El Rukn street gang to kill a boyhood friend of his, Leroy “Hambone” Barber, after the two got into a fistfight in South Carolina, where they both grew up.