Creators
June 10, 2024
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the former state attorney
general, has called for the end of the state's death penalty. Pennsylvania has
not carried out an execution in 25 years. Moreover, 60 years have passed since
the state's last involuntarily execution.
Although executions have stopped for now, Pennsylvania has
thousands of prisoners serving de facto death sentences — referred to as
"death-by-incarceration."
What is death-by-incarceration? Offenders condemned to life
in prison without the possibility of parole.
Under Pennsylvania's sentencing scheme, offenders — other
than lifers — are sentenced to a minimum and a maximum term of sentence. The
maximum must be at least twice the minimum.
Once an inmate has served her minimum sentence, she is
eligible for parole. Release from prison is determined by the state's parole
board. Once released, the offender is supervised on parole until the expiration
of her maximum sentence.
A life sentence in Pennsylvania has no minimum — there is no
opportunity for parole — life means life in Pennsylvania.
Not all lifers are the same in Pennsylvania. There are
lifers who have killed another human being but avoided the death penalty, and
then those who committed a felony that resulted in another's death. The law in
Pennsylvania is clear: If a death occurs during the commission of a felony, the
death is considered murder and anyone who participated in the felony is equally
responsible for the murder, regardless of whether they had any criminal intent
to harm or cause death.
Felony murder is a statutory crime in Pennsylvania
promulgated at 25 P.S. 2502 (b) providing "Criminal homicide constitutes
murder of the second degree when it is committed while defendant was engaged as
a principal or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony."
At one time in Pennsylvania, first- and second-degree murder
were punishable by death. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily banned
the death penalty, finding it was arbitrary in the manner it was imposed.
Two years later, the legislature rewrote the death penalty
statute and felony murder became second-degree murder, eliminating capital
punishment as a sentencing option — but felony murder continued to be mandatory
life without parole.
As a result, Pennsylvania is home to thousands of people
sentenced to die in prison. The state has the second-highest number of people
serving life without parole, nearly 5,100 inmates, approximately one in five
have been convicted of felony murder, according to the Pennsylvania Department
of Corrections.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have tried to provide hope for those
serving life sentences. A pending bill would allow lifers a chance at parole
after serving 35 years on a first-degree murder conviction and 25 years on
second-degree murder. The proposal has not made it to the floor for a vote.
Several years ago, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of six
people convicted in their late teens of "felony murder," arguing that
prohibiting parole consideration for felony murder is cruel and
unconstitutional under Pennsylvania law. Article I, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania
Constitution prohibits "cruel punishment." Pennsylvania's
constitutional provision predates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
In 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed the suit
on grounds that it was improperly filed as a civil lawsuit and the court lacked
jurisdiction. The court found the plaintiffs could still challenge the legality
of their sentences after exhausting the appeals process, but those claims had
to be filed through the criminal court.
Subsequently, a second claim in criminal court was rejected
by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. In a concurring opinion, Superior Court
Judge Alice Beck Dubow urged the state Supreme Court to revisit the matter
"in light of changes in related case law from other states and research
and policy concerns regarding the criminal justice system."
Now, Pennsylvania's highest court will consider the
constitutionality of mandatory life without parole in cases where the defendant
"did not kill or intend to kill and therefore had categorically diminished
culpability." The case pending before the court is out of Pittsburgh and
was brought on behalf of a prisoner whose accomplice, during the commission of
a robbery, shot and killed a man.
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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