COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — A school shooter serving a life sentence without parole for killing a first grader on a South Carolina playground when he was 14 is asking a judge to lessen his sentence so he can eventually get out of prison.

Jesse Osborne’s lawyer asked Judge Lawton McIntosh on Monday to reconsider his sentence so Osborne, now 21, could have some hope of freedom in his 50s or 60s.

Attorney Frank Eppes said the judge didn’t fully consider a psychologist’s report that Osborne’s lashed out because of abuse and can be rehabilitated.

“Give Jesse some hope to live with,” Eppes said at a televised court hearing.

Osborne himself asked for a chance at life outside a prison cell, apologising to the family of 6-year-old Jacob Hall who he killed and everyone at the school that day.

“I would just like to say sorry to every single one of them. Because my evil actions hurt their lives,” Osborne said. “I’m just going to try to better myself in the Department of Corrections the rest of my life.

But the teacher whose class was having recess, the parent of a wounded child, the father of the student celebrating his birthday, the superintendent who saw the bloodstained class rug and the school principal all said at Monday’s hearing at the Anderson County Courthouse that they don’t want to ever see Osborne out of prison.

Principal Denise Fredericks recognised Osborne as he paced outside Townville Elementary School with a backpack full of ammunition for 12 minutes after his gun jammed before police arrived to arrest him. Osborne had been a student there for seven years.

“I do wish Jesse a life where he can wake up, breathe, eat, work, be productive — but not outside the walls of a prison,” Fredericks said. “In my opinion, his current sentence is still so, so much more merciful than the sentence he gave to Jacob and our school family.”

Prosecutors said Hall’s family didn’t wish to speak in court but want Osborne to never be released from prison.

Osborne is serving two life sentences after pleading guilty. Before opening fire at the school on September 28, 2016, he shot and killed his father while he slept in a recliner, kissed his rabbit and other pets goodbye, then stole his dad’s truck and drove to his former elementary school, according to Osborne’s confession.

Osborne crashed his truck into the school fence and fired at the first grade class celebrating a classmate’s birthday at recess. Hall bled to death from a gunshot to his leg. Two other student and a teacher suffered minor injuries.

Uneaten cupcakes with the Batman logo could still be seen on the ground inside police tape hours after the shooting.

“My son hates his birthday now,” father Jeff Bernard told the judge.

Prosecutors said Osborne wanted to kill dozens but he was carrying the wrong ammunition and his gun jammed after every shot.

“He didn’t stop because he wanted to. The gun jammed. Thank God the gun jammed,” Fredericks said.

Osborne’s lawyer said a video call he had open to a group chat with people who knew his plan showed him sobbing, upset and ready to give up after the first shots.

Osborne is asking the judge to consider a supplemental report from a psychologist that disagrees with prosecution experts who testified at Osborne’s original sentencing that he is a dangerous and pathological liar with no remorse.