Creators
April 3, 2024
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court will consider whether
some life without parole sentences for those convicted of murder violate the
state and federal Constitutions. Pennsylvania has about 5,100 people serving
life without parole.
In Pennsylvania, over 1,100 of those serving life
without parole were sentenced for "felony" murder. Pennsylvania is
one of only two states that continues to impose a mandatory life-in-prison
sentence for "felony" murder.
If an accused participates in a felony that leads to
death even if that person did not cause the death, the accused can be charged
and convicted of second-degree murder, also known as felony murder. Life
without parole is currently the state's only possible sentence for those
convicted of second-degree murder.
Life without parole (LWOP) is a growing concern in
this country. According to the Sentencing Project, the number of LWOP sentences
has more than quadrupled from about 12,500 in 1992 to more than 56,000 as of
2023.
The expansion of LWOP was the result of the
confluence of two very different groups. The right-wing — tough-on-crime —
hardliners who, beginning in the mid-1980s, declared war on drugs and violent
crime and adopted harsher, mandatory sentences, including LWOP.
The second group includes the death penalty
abolitionists, left-leaning progressives, who adopted LWOP sentences as a
logical alternative to the death penalty. As the death penalty waned — only 24
executions in 2023 — those opposed to the death penalty have now set their
sights on LWOP.
The cost and morality of locking-up — forever — a
wide swath of offenders began to be questioned in 2012 following a landmark
Supreme Court decision involving juvenile offenders.
Fourteen-year-old Evan Miller was accused of murder
in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 2003. Miller went to trial and was convicted of
murder and sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole. The
United States is the only country that allows the sentence of life without
parole for juveniles.
Miller filed an appeal, arguing that sentencing a
14-year-old to life without parole constituted cruel and unusual punishment in
violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. Justice
Elena Kagan, writing for the majority in Miller v. Alabama in what would become
a landmark decision wrote, "Mandatory life without parole for a juvenile
precludes consideration of his chronological age and its hallmark features —
among them, immaturity, impetuosity, and failure to appreciate risks and
consequences. It prevents taking into account the family and home environment
that surrounds him — and from which he cannot usually extricate himself — no
matter how brutal or dysfunctional."
Pennsylvania had the highest population of juvenile
lifers in the country. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,
of the 520 juveniles serving life without parole, 497 have been re-sentenced
and 303 have been released.
A number of states are reviewing offenses that are
subject to LWOP. The Massachusetts Supreme Court banned sentences of life
without parole for juveniles in 2013. Today there are 28 states that have
banned juvenile LWOP.
In January, the Massachusetts Supreme Court again
took the lead issuing a landmark ruling that expanded its earlier holding and
raised the minimum age for life without parole from 18 to 21. Washington, D.C.,
has gone even further raising the age of eligibility for LWOP to 25.
According to Bolt, a digital magazine, over the last
12 months, Connecticut and Illinois both adopted laws to restrict LWOP up to
age 21. In Michigan and Washington, judges banned sentencing rules that mandate
life without parole for people under 19 and 21, respectively.
Reform proponents in other states are already lining
up to be next. According to Bolt, California's Supreme Court heard a case in
December that could prohibit life without parole up to age 26.
Today, the rallying cry for reformers is "life
without parole is cruel and unusual punishment regardless of the age of the offender."
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg,
Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book "The Executioner's Toll,
2010" was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at
www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
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