The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation creating a pathway for inmates to seek release from prison in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling that found the state’s use of life sentences without possibility of parole for second-degree murder convictions was unconstitutional.

Under Senate Bill 1400, inmates convicted of second-degree murder would be eligible for release after serving at least 35 years in prison. Those over age 70 who have served at least 20 years behind bars would be eligible for parole, as well.

Individuals convicted of second-degree murder are typically conspirators found to have broken other laws while participating in a crime that resulted in a victim being killed. The classic example of this is the getaway driver who is directly involved in the crime itself.

SB 1400 would allow judges to sentence individuals convicted of second-degree murder to life in prison if they committed the killing or if they are found to have met one of four other aggravating factors: the victim was a law enforcement officer or a child under age 13; if the individual committed a rape during the crime; if the individual had previously been convicted of a violent offense or the individual was found to have seriously injured or killed another victim during the crime.

The legislation was prompted by the court decision in a lawsuit filed by Derek Lee, an inmate behind bars for his role in a 2014 Pittsburgh robbery in which the victim was killed. Court documents indicate Lee pistol-whipped a victim in the basement of a home before running upstairs. After Lee left, one of the victims was shot and killed while trying to take a gun from the other robber.

The justices gave lawmakers until July 24 to update state law in response to their ruling in Lee’s case.

Pennsylvania had been just one of two states, along with Louisiana, in which a second-degree murder conviction carried an automatic penalty of life in prison without parole.

State officials have estimated that more than 1,100 people behind bars will be impacted by the change. Of that number, about 700 have been in prison for more than 20 years and 300 of them are over age 60, Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery, the majority chair of the House Judiciary Committee said.

SB 1400 was approved 9-5 in a party-line vote with all Republicans supporting the legislation and all Democrats opposed.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern about a clause in the bill that sets a 10-year minimum sentence in future cases even if the individual demonstrates he or she did not knowingly participate in the crime.

“I cannot imagine any framework of justice or dignity where no culpability equals 10 years,” said Sen. Art Haywood, D-Philadelphia.

An amendment approved by the committee spells out how courts will determine the amount of culpability the individual should hold for the crime they were convicted of participating in.

Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria, said the amendment aims to address head-on the guidance given by the Supreme Court justices in their ruling.

“It talks about culpability, culpability, culpability,” he said.

Langerholc said that of the 1,100 or so people impacted by the ruling, only about 10 or 11 are individuals who were convicted for being getaway drivers.

Sen. Maria Collett, the minority chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, responded that even if the number of people serving life sentences for being getaway drivers is modest, “those are 11 lives.”

Langerholc later in the meeting apologized for diminishing the plight of those individuals.

“I did not mean to cast that aside,” he said.

However, he said that despite the ruling, some of the 1,100 people serving life sentences for second-degree murder should remain behind bars for the rest of their lives due to the severity of their crimes.

Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, the majority chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, said that as the state responds to the ruling, the families of crime victims will be forced to endure new court proceedings after they’d been told that the defendants would be behind bars for the rest of their lives.

“We can’t lose sight of who the victims are,” she said. In some cases, victims’ families may not have registered with victim advocates because they didn’t think they would need to worry about the individuals convicted of harming their loved one ever getting out of prison.

SB 1400 directs the Office of Victim Advocates to make “all reasonable efforts” to give victims’ families at least 30 days notice before parole hearings triggered by the court ruling and provide them an opportunity to testify at those hearings.