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Prosecutors and other court officials on Thursday told a panel of lawmakers that the General Assembly needs to act to set the ground rules as the judiciary adjusts to a March Supreme Court ruling finding Pennsylvania's use of mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder convictions is unconstitutional.
The ruling impacted those convicted of committing a felony that resulted in a death. Critics of the state's use of life sentences in these cases maintain that the old sentencing scheme was unfair to those who may have been conspirators in a crime but did not directly commit a murder.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, say that in many cases the individual convicted of second-degree murder was directly involved in the killing. It is not uncommon for prosecutors and defendants to reach plea agreements that involve dropping the first-degree murder charge if the defendant pleads guilty to second-degree murder.
In such cases, the defendant avoids facing a potential death penalty sentence while saving the victim's family the trauma of going through a criminal trial.
The Supreme Court's ruling didn't immediately open the door to cover those already convicted of second-degree murder. However, earlier this month, a group of inmates filed a King's Bench petition asking the justices to make the felony murder ruling retroactive.
That has victim's advocates and prosecutors warning that unless lawmakers set the ground rules, the courts could be forced to re-sentence more than 1,000 inmates without uniform guidelines while reopening the wounds of victims and their loved ones.
"Some of those individuals who negotiated a second-degree plea could have an opportunity to get out, and it deprived the Commonwealth of the opportunity to have pursued a first-degree murder or a death penalty type case. And oftentimes, particularly with the King's Bench petition that was just filed, these are very old cases, and there is no way the Commonwealth would be able to retry a case like that," David Ashworth, the former president judge in Lancaster County, said at a hearing convened by the House Republican policy committee.
Ashworth said he had presided over many second-
degree murder cases and said they "are never easy, they're never the same and it is always difficult to manage."
Resentencing inmates who've been imprisoned for decades means that relatives of their victims will lose any sense of closure provided by the trial and original conviction that put those individuals behind bars, said Deanna Weaver, director of victim/witness services in the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
"Though the void of lost loved ones can never be filled, seeing offenders held accountable and the finality of a sentence can allow them to move ahead in the healing process," Weaver said at the hearing. "Now that five, 10, even 25 years have passed since the offender who killed your loved one was sentenced. Just when you might be able to talk about it without falling apart, just when you're able to focus on other things in your life, you are informed that the offender's sentence is no longer valid, and so the case is open again. The scars are once again open wounds."
Advocates for inmates argue that most of those awaiting a decision on whether the ruling will be retroactive are individuals who have been behind bars for decades and are no longer a substantial risk of re-offending. Of the more than 1,100 convicted of felony murder in Pennsylvania, approximately 500 people are over 55 years old and 250 people are over 65.
The justices gave lawmakers 120 days to respond to the ruling, but that deadline has passed without a deal to get legislation to the governor.
Both chambers have passed bills that would set new guidelines for sentencing individuals convicted of second-degree murder.
House Bill 1042 would allow any individual who has served at least 30 years of a life sentence for a second-degree murder to petition the court for release. The legislation also directs the state sentencing commission to develop new guidelines for second-degree murder sentencing.
However, House Democrats amended the legislation to establish a system to allow inmates to apply for medical release from prison if they are terminally ill, a provision that Republicans reject. After the bill was amended to include the medical release clause, the House approved the measure on a party line 102-100 vote.
Senate Bill 1400, which as approved by the Senate in June, would allow judges to continue handing down life sentences for second-degree murder convictions if the individual on trial is accused of committing the killing at the heart of the case or if other aggravating factors are at play. Those include if they victim is a child or a law enforcement officer; if a rape was committed during he crime or if the accused had previously been convicted of a violent offenses or seriously injured or killed another victim.
Ashworth said he thinks SB 1400 is the better option available to lawmakers, adding the legislation would give the court system "the tools necessary to address this issue and avoid the chaos and unpredictability and the trauma that would otherwise result."
Both chambers of the Legislature are due to return to the Capitol on Sept. 28 to begin the short fall session before the midterm elections in November.