It's been nearly 30 years since six Kansas City firefighters were killed in an explosion after responding to a call about a truck on fire at a construction site near U.S. 71 and 87th Street. But the crime remains present and painful, particularly since further investigations cast doubt on whether the five people sentenced to life in prison actually committed the crime. On Wednesday, Bryan E. Sheppard, one of the men convicted, appeared before U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. not to argue his innocence but to argue that his sentence was unconstitutional. Sheppard was 17 at the time of the explosion. (The other four were older.) In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for people under 18 are unconstitutional, a decision that ultimately led to a new sentencing hearing for Sheppard. In Gaitan's courtroom Wednesday morning, Sheppard, who is now 45, and others testified that he had grown up and reformed himself during the 22 years he's spent in prison,
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