FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Connease Warren, Abolitionist Law Center: 713-304-8990 | connease@alcenter.org

With one day left before the July 24 deadline that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (SCOPA) gave the legislature to end mandatory life without parole sentences for 2nd-degree murder, which it had ruled unconstitutionally cruel in Commonwealth v. Lee, our movement prepares to head back to the courts to get relief for those serving that sentence. We expect this will result in mass resentencings across the Commonwealth, similar to what we experienced with juvenile lifers from 2017 onwards after the US Supreme Court found their mandatory life without parole sentence unconstitutional. As a result of these resentencings, many people who have turned their lives around are going to rejoin their communities and be reunited with their families. The fight now moves to the courts and to secure the funding necessary for public defenders and other actors to carry out these resentencings in a just manner. Abolitionist Law Center has one case seeking a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on the retroactivity of Lee, and will be preparing additional petitions to the Court along with partners in the immediate future.

During the 120-day stay of the March 26 Lee decision, instead of working to find a viable legislative path involving all stakeholders, including communities impacted by mass incarceration, the Senate Republicans and the Office of Attorney General played political games that derailed serious attempts at reform. We were having productive conversations among stakeholders, but with the rushed passage of Senate Bill 1400, those conversations stalled along with any hope that a compromise between all stakeholders could be achieved. SB 1400 would have delayed parole eligibility until after 35 years of incarceration, while also unconstitutionally excluding certain categories of people from seeking parole entirely. This is a much worse outcome than we expect most people, on average, will experience through a mass resentencing scenario.

We made multiple compromise offers that other stakeholders rejected. We have been ready – and we remain ready – to have serious discussions about a viable path forward to remedy these unconstitutional sentences, but there have been no further attempts at compromise with our coalition. While we were willing to compromise on certain points, we were expected to compromise on almost every level, and we would not do that to our communities and the families of incarcerated people whom we represent.

This week, House Democrats put forward a compromise offer that we supported, House Bill 1042, and voted it out of the House on Thursday, July 23. This bill retroactively allows for parole eligibility after 30 years for those currently incarcerated and, if passed into law, would create a just system of medical release of seriously ill persons per the language of HB 150, which the House passed late last year. It also referred the issue of the prospective sentence for all second-degree murder convictions to the Sentencing Commission and instructed the commission to create sentencing guidelines for second degree murder.

While we prepare to take this issue back to the courts, we urge the Senate to pass this common sense compromise solution as soon as possible. Prior to another ruling by the Court, the legislature still has an opportunity to avoid mass resentencings. However, the only legislative remedy that has a chance of passing is a compromise solution such as HB 1042. If there is to be a solution that avoids mass resentencings, then there must be some give and take on both sides. The communities most impacted by gun violence and mass incarceration must not be expected to give in and compromise on every point.

We thank Rep. Krajewski, Chairman Harris, Chairman Briggs, Majority Leader Bradford, and others in the PA House of Representatives for holding the line and refusing to pass SB 1400. We must all remain vigilant and immediately put an end to any attempts to push a bill that resembles SB 1400. People sentenced to second degree who have turned around their lives deserve to have a second look well before 35 years. And the taxpayers of our Commonwealth who foot the enormous bill for these draconian sentences deserve to have their hard-earned dollars invested in the types of community resources that actually promote public safety.

While HB 1042 offers hope that a sensible compromise can eventually pass both the House and Senate, we are preparing to move this issue back into the courts to ensure justice for our communities. And though the PA Supreme Court decision in Commonwealth vs. Lee has provided a legal remedy toward addressing extreme sentences, much work remains to be done. We will continue building and growing our movement so we can win a rational sentencing policy that provides solutions other than endless incarceration. Solutions that prioritize giving people a second look and afford people who have done the hard work to transform themselves a path home.