A new term in Pennsylvania’s state legislature is underway with fresh opportunities for finally ending our state’s draconian felony murder law. This law requires a death by incarceration (life without parole) sentence for anyone convicted of second degree murder for being involved in a felony that resulted in a death—even if they didn’t kill or intend to kill anyone, and regardless of their level of involvement in the underlying felony. Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states that mandates this harsh and unjust penalty for felony murder.
So we were excited to gather in Harrisburg on February 5 with our Free Our People movement family – fellow advocates, formerly incarcerated people, and loved ones of incarcerated people – to combat this extreme law. We first met with elected officials to share a new report from the Abolitionist Law Center on compassionate release that reveals how this state process is failing to provide relief for those sentenced to death by incarceration (DBI), as it was intended. It makes clear that reform is desperately needed. We encouraged legislators to support two forthcoming bills, sponsored by Rep. Rick Krajewski and Rep. Andre Carroll (both Philadelphia County Democrats), aimed respectively at giving the chance of medical release to those with serious medical problems serving DBI and parole to elderly incarcerated people so they can receive appropriate care in their communities.
We then gathered with a group of state legislators as Rep. Tim Briggs (D-Montgomery County) announced the introduction of a new state bill, House Bill 443. This and a bipartisan forthcoming companion bill in the Senate sponsored by Senators Camera Bartolotta (R-Beaver, Greene, and Washington Counties) and Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia County) would allow those convicted of felony murder the opportunity to seek parole rather than requiring they remain incarcerated through old age and death.
There are more than five thousand Pennsylvanians serving death by incarceration (DBI) sentences for first- or second-degree murder, and the number of elderly behind bars is only growing. As Straight Ahead legislative director Roxanne Horrell stated, former PA Sen. Greenleaf called attention to this problem and the need for reform in a 2005 report. Yet 20 years later, the number of elders with these sentences in PA prisons has more than tripled. Aside from the senseless inhumanity of this, it is incredibly expensive. Medical care for our entire prison population, substandard though it is, cost taxpayers $420 million last year, Celeste Trusty of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) pointed out.
The carceral system is not a solution to community violence, and sentencing people to die in prison serves no public safety purpose. As Cristina Reyes, a community leader who’s lost loved ones to gun violence and to DBI sentences, said, “We know that prisons don’t rehabilitate people. People rehabilitate themselves despite the environment our society has put them in.”
This was a recurring theme among the day’s speakers who had spent time incarcerated. Having done the hard work of transformation, they spoke of the urgent need to bring the many men and women like them home to share their wisdom and guidance with their communities. Abolitionist Law Center staff member John Thompson gained a second chance after the US Supreme Court found mandatory DBI sentences for juveniles to be unconstitutional (Miller v. Alabama, 2012). Yet many of the men who mentored him and helped him grow into the person he is today, he said, are still behind bars because they were just a few years older when they were convicted—a meaningless distinction that will nonetheless seal their fate unless the laws are changed.
All these bills are in motion with bipartisan support, and we were thrilled to see elected officials from both sides of the aisle standing shoulder to shoulder to support second chances for incarcerated people who have turned their lives around. Thank you to state Reps. Briggs, Carroll, Krajewski and Sens. Bartolotta & Street; Reps. Gina Curry and Carol Kazeem (both Delaware County Democrats); Reps. Danilo Burgos, Keith Harris, Joseph Hohenstein, Tarik Khan, Chris Rabb, and Ben Waxman (all Philadelphia County Democrats); and Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks (Working Families Party) for standing with us in the fight for a more compassionate system.
We are grateful to our allies Amistad Law Project, Human Rights Coalition, Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration (CADBI), Let’s Get Free, FAMM, Free the Ballot and many more for their tireless work to bring people home from prison and build real community safety.
Watch the full press conference here.
Speaker remarks: