Pennsylvania Supreme Court Ends Mandatory Life Without Parole For Those Who Did Not Intentionally Kill

[Washington, D.C.] – Today, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court barred mandatory life without parole (LWOP) sentences for people convicted of felony murder. The court’s ruling in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Derek Lee establishes that a mandatory life without parole sentence imposed for felony murder without consideration of the person’s individual culpability violates the Pennsylvania Constitution’s prohibition of “cruel punishments”, marking a major shift from automatic and unforgiving policies that had condemned over a thousand to die in prison.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s opinion states: “We find that the sentencing framework imposing a mandatory sentence of life without parole for second degree murder convictions in all cases, regardless of the culpability and characteristics of the defendant – including such as the extent of an offender’s participation in the conduct, and the details of his offense – without individualized assessment either at sentencing or through parole, prevents the sentencer from considering whether this harshest of sentences proportionately punishes the offender. . . . Ultimately, we find that the mandatory sentencing scheme for second degree murder poses too great a risk of disproportionate punishment, and, thus, find it to be cruel.”

The Sentencing Project joined 16 other organizations, including the ACLU, MacArthur Justice Center, Juvenile Law Center, and Pennsylvania Prison Society, in filing amicus briefs urging the Court to strike down Pennsylvania’s lifetime ban on parole eligibility for individuals convicted of felony murder. As noted in its brief, “The reduced culpability of a person convicted of felony murder… renders life without parole disproportionately harsh and unconstitutional.”

Pennsylvania remains a national outlier, with over 5,000 people serving life without parole—nearly 1,100 for felony murder—ranking among the highest in the country. The Sentencing Project’s research shows these laws disproportionately impact Black Pennsylvanians, who make up 70% of those serving time for felony murder, despite being just 12% of the state’s population.

“This decision is a critical step toward ending the use of extreme sentences that ignore the human capacity for change and do nothing to prevent crime or keep our communities safe,” said Sara Cohbra of The Sentencing Project. “Mandatory LWOP sentences for these crimes are a clear violation of how our legal system is supposed to work, where a criminal sentence is proportional to the moral weight of a crime. We urge lawmakers to repeal cruel and ineffective felony murder statutes to address the scourge of mass incarceration and racial disparities in the criminal legal system.”

Read the full amicus brief for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Derek Lee here. For more information about how The Sentencing Project is advocating against extreme sentences, please visit https://www.sentencingproject.org/ending-extreme-sentences/.