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HARRISBURG, Pa. (CN) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down mandatory life imprisonment without parole for individuals convicted of felony murder Thursday, offering more than 1,000 people currently in prison the chance for freedom.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro applauded the court’s decision on X Thursday.
“I have long believed this law is unjust and wrong,” Shapiro wrote. “As governor, I took legal action in this case arguing to strike down this sentencing framework. Common sense and true justice dictate that we need different penalties for different conduct. For example, the getaway driver shouldn’t get the same sentence as the person who pulls the trigger.”
In the state, felony murder — also known as second-degree murder — encompasses all killings committed while an individual is engaged in or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony, regardless of whether the killing was intentional.
Critically, the state can convict someone of felony murder without them having personally ended a life; involvement in a deadly felony is enough to mandate life in prison. If one person committed a killing in the act, everyone involved went to prison as a murderer — and until now, no one could ever leave.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision centered around Allegheny County man Derek Lee, who committed an armed robbery of a Pittsburgh home in 2014 with his accomplice, herding Leonard Butler and Tina Chapple at gunpoint into their basement.
While in the basement, Lee pistol-whipped Butler before stealing his watch and heading upstairs. After Lee left the room, Butler initiated a scuffle with the accomplice over control of his gun, resulting in a shot that killed Butler.
During the police investigation of the murder, officers found records indicating a rental vehicle under Lee’s name was parked outside Butler and Chapple’s home around the time of the shooting. Chapple later identified Lee as one of the men involved in the robbery, but not the shooter.
In 2016, a jury convicted Lee of second-degree murder, infliction of serious bodily injury and conspiracy; a judge sentenced Lee to mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole later that year.
Lee filed a motion to modify his sentence, arguing his mandatory life sentence without parole was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the “cruel punishments” clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution. A trial court denied him relief in 2021.
Lee appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, but a three-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s decision, finding it was bound by existing state precedent.
The state Supreme Court agreed to hear Lee’s appeal in 2024, ultimately vacating his sentence on Thursday.
Writing the court’s majority opinion, Chief Justice Debra M. Todd ruled that Pennsylvania’s protections against cruel punishment extend farther than federal protections.
Specifically, Todd highlighted the importance of factoring a defendant’s culpability in sentencing, noting that mandating a uniform punishment for a broad array of criminal conduct ignores all nuance: “Second-degree murder does not distinguish between the lookout and the killer who pulls the trigger.”
“Therefore, a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole is inconsistent with the retributive principle that punishment should be proportionate to culpability,” Todd added. “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.”
Finding that the mandatory sentencing violates the state constitution, the court vacated Lee’s sentence and remanded the matter to trial court for resentencing with considerations for his culpability in Butler’s death.
However, the court stayed its mandate for 120 days “in order to provide a reasonable amount of time for the [Pennsylvania] General Assembly to consider appropriate remedial measures.”
According to the Felony Murder Reporting Project, 1,131 people are currently incarcerated for felony murder, all of whom could see resentencing in the wake of the court’s decision.
With Pennsylvania removing mandatory life sentencing for felony murder convictions, only one state — Louisiana — still requires life imprisonment for such a conviction.
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