“This is eating me up day by day,” Green said in a statement to the Anderson family read by one of his attorneys, Stephen Lee. “My intent when I went to your house was not to kill anyone.” He wrote that he “made a mistake,” and he asked the family for forgiveness.

He also referred to himself as a “misunderstood boy” and said he was not a monster, but Darcie Anderson later said the language in the letter led her to believe that Green — who acknowledged struggling to read and write — did not write it himself.

Because Green was a juvenile when the crimes took place, he was legally entitled to a specialized sentencing hearing to determine whether he is “irreparably corrupt and permanently incorrigible.” The designation, a legal standard first established by the U.S. Supreme Court, must be made before a court can consider life without parole for a minor defendant.

Courts are supposed to consider issues such as maturity and sophistication, family environment, legal history, pattern of living, likelihood of rehabilitation and ability to distinguish right from wrong.