Politics PA: “In a landmark ruling on Thursday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that sentencing people convicted of second degree murder to life without parole is unconstitutional. The court ruled that the sentence conflicts with the Pennsylvania Constitution’s ban on cruel punishment.

The court’s ruling came in the case of Derek Lee from Allegheny County. Lee was involved in a robbery in Pittsburgh in 2014 with another man. While Lee was upstairs, another man involved in the robbery killed a man in the basement. A person can be convicted of second degree murder if they are involved in committing a felony and someone is killed during the act, even if the person did not intend to kill anyone and was not involved in the action that led to a death.

The case was argued by Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of two former secretaries of the Board of Pardons, Celeste Trusty and the late Brandon Flood.

‘Life without parole is really death by incarceration. That’s the outcome the commonwealth gets with this sentence,’ said Frances Harvey, interim executive director of the Atlantic Center. ‘It’s an extreme sentence that, by definition, denies the possibility for redemption or rehabilitation. And it’s overused in Pennsylvania, including for people like Derek Lee, who didn’t kill anyone.'”

read the full article