The Philadelphia Inquirer: “For nearly a decade, Derek Lee had been serving a life sentence for his role in a Pittsburgh murder.

Then, last month, he called his attorney.

‘They overturned your case,’ the lawyer said. ‘Your sentence has been held unconstitutional.’

‘Praise be to God,’ said Lee, 38. ‘Praise be to God.’

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had struck down the state’s mandatory life-without-parole sentence for second-degree murder, ruling it violates the state constitution’s ban on cruel punishment. While the decision does not automatically apply to people already sentenced, it opened a path — and a legal fight — over whether those long condemned to die in prison may now seek resentencing.

Lee’s case was the vehicle….

‘It’s really central to his own appeal that this is a vehicle for others,’ said his attorney, Bret Grote, legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center, who took Lee’s case in 2021.

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