State representative Jim Struzzi issued a statement over dueling bills in the House and Senate on punishments for second degree murder.
The PA Supreme Court earlier this year declared that mandatory life sentences for 2nd Degree Murder were unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to come up with a workaround for sentencing guidelines that met the court’s standards. The Senate had presented a bill that set a minimum sentence of 35 years and had flexibility in certain cases. The House presented it’s own bill on Thursday removed the minimum sentence, and allows parole after serving 30 years in prison and permits the PA Supreme Court to apply the new standards retroactively. The House version of the bill did not get the endorsement of PA Attorney General Dave Sunday, the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association or the Fraternal Order of Police.
In a statement, State Representative Jim Struzzi said he voted against the bill by the House He said that the house had left initially without acting on it, and rushed back to put the new version of the bill on the table. He said that the solution presented “was worse than the problem” and called the rushed legislation “Simply a political reactionm not a not a good-faith effort to solve a pressing problem for our law enforcement and for public safety across the Commonwealth.”
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