Twenty-one years ago, a 17-year-old youth kidnapped my 15-year-old son, Jeremy Drake. Within hours, my son had been shot to death in a park in northeast Omaha. That youth, Jeremy Herman, and a 19-year-old were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

My son was a kind and compassionate child. He was a good student; he worked hard and had many friends. He earned his own money to buy a guitar. At 15, he was already an accomplished musician. As the oldest child in a single-parent home, he took on many responsibilities helping me and his younger three siblings.

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