With the Commonwealth v. Derek Lee ruling still pending but possibly coming soon, this update provides ways for people to sign up family and supporters to be able to receive clear, accurate, and unfiltered information about the decision and next steps as soon as a ruling is released.

The PA Supreme Court heard the arguments for the Lee Case in Oct of 2024. They aren’t required to meet any deadline or release a ruling at any particular time, but this is also an unusually long time for them to delay a ruling. There was a reasonable assumption that they were delaying the case until after the judicial retention elections in November. However, it’s been two months since then, and there don’t appear to be any more barriers to releasing a ruling. We encourage people to understand that a ruling might still be delayed further, but also be ready in case it does come soon.

There are some good reasons to expect the Court might find 2nd-degree (felony murder)sentences unconstitutional. At the oral argument in October 2024, the justices spent almost no time entertaining the opposing side’s arguments, and seemed to agree that there were multiple reasons that the sentence didn’t hold up to scrutiny. They spent most of the time talking through possible remedies or ways to proceed if the sentence was found unconstitutional (even if they also seemed cautious about committing to anything). This is unusual for this Court, and certainly for any case involving death-by-incarceration/life-without-parole
sentences that have come before this Court recently. While we’ve been disappointed by these higher courts before, it is more reasonable than in the past to expect the Court may overturn the sentence.

Given the extraordinary importance of the ruling, ALC wanted to make sure that incarcerated Pennsylvanians’ supporters have a chance to hear a breakdown of the ruling as soon as it comes out. We’ll offer a full information session explaining the ruling and letting people know what to expect and how to prepare for next steps that might result from it. The possible outcomes could be anything: there might be individual re-sentencings, or complicated impacts on the parole code,
or anything else. So we know it’ll be crucial for people to have good info and start planning confidently.

Since we don’t know when the ruling will come down, we can’t schedule this information session just yet. Instead, we’re asking people to register directly at bit.ly/LeeCaseUpdates, so we can email or text them quickly when the decision comes with details about the session as soon.

We’re excited and gratified about the possible outcomes of this case, and regardless of what the news is we want everyone on the inside and their families to have the best information and support possible as the fight for everyone’s freedom continues.