Supreme Court hears case that could impact more than 1,000 inmates convicted of second-degree murder
WTAE 4 ABC, 10/08/24: “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments in Pittsburgh in a case that could impact more than 1,000 inmates serving life sentences.
The case involves Derek Lee of Penn Hills, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the 2014 fatal shooting of Leonard Butler in Pittsburgh’s Elliot neighborhood.
Lee did not pull the trigger, but he was still sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Attorney Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center represents Lee.
‘This is a sentence that impacts more than a thousand people in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we are seeking to put an end to it,’ Grote said. ‘Mr. Lee is really emblematic of so many who are sentenced to die in prison for felony murder in Pennsylvania. He didn’t take a life. He did not commit the act that led to the death. And he did not intend to take a life.'”