Pennsylvania’s prisons hold more than 1,100 inmates convicted of murder and serving life sentences without the chance of parole for murder. On Friday, the State Supreme Court said it would hear arguments on whether or not such sentences are constitutional.
The appeal stems from the sentencing of a Pittsburgh man for second degree murder. The Abolitionist Law Center filed the petition last July, contending that inmates and their families have a “right to redemption and…the opportunity to come home someday.” It claims Pennsylvania and Louisiana are the only two states in the nation that permit mandatory life sentences without parole for felony murder, even when there was no intent to kill.
A three-judge Superior Court panel last year denied the sentencing appeal of the defendant, Derek Lee, who was one of two men convicted of second degree murder in a 2014 shooting. Lee was previously convicted of attempted homicide for a 2006 shooting in which five members of the Duquesne University basketball team were wounded, although none of them were hit by shots Lee fired.
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