Last week, four petitioners represented pro bono by Abolitionist Law Center, Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and Phillips Black, filed King’s Bench petitions requesting that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court take immediate action and declare that its historic decision striking down mandatory life without parole sentences for felony murder applies retroactively. The King’s Bench power gives the Supreme Court the ability to act in urgent matters of public importance. 

The filings of petitioners Cecil Holmes, Lori Lassiter, John Payne, and Marsha Scaggs come nearly six months after the Court’s landmark ruling in Commonwealth v. Derek Lee where the Court found mandatory life without parole for felony murder was a cruel punishment in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

“There are more than 1,100 people serving an illegal,

cruel sentence of death by incarceration for felony murder. Such a

mass injustice is a Constitutional crisis that requires prompt action by the Supreme Court.”    –Bret Grote, ALC Legal Director

While the Lee ruling could be a ray of hope for over 1,100 Pennsylvanians and their families, the months since have been beset with questions and uncertainty about the path forward. When it struck down Mr. Lee’s sentence, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to say whether or not its ruling applied retroactively for other people convicted of second-degree murder. The Court stayed Mr. Lee’s resentencing proceedings for 120 days to give the legislature time to pass a bill in response to its ruling. That 120 days expired on July 24 without legislative action.

Now, Mr. Holmes, Ms. Lassiter, Mr. Payne, and Ms. Scaggs petition for a ruling to apply the Lee decision retroactively so that hundreds more can seek resentencing in the trial courts.