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 Support Board

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Letters of support may be mailed to:

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The Honorable Daniel Howsare

Bedford County Court House

200 S. Juliana St.

Bedford, PA 15222

 

Please share this information with those who support the elimination of LWOP.

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Together we can make a difference.

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Thank You...directly from Jessica

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Jessica Holtmeyer is a juvenile lifer incarcerated at SCI-Muncy.  She recently went through a rough resentencing hearing where Troy Edwards, Re-entry Services Coordinator and Deban Cole, a social worker, both at Muncy, testified on her behalf but the prosecutor strongly challenged their testimony.   

Jessica is reaching out to us as individuals and grassroots organizations for help by sending a letter of support to her judge – identifying Jessica as someone deserving of a second chance.  The judge will soon make a decision about this case so, if you want to help by sending a letter of support, it must be in the judges office no later than September 7, 2018.

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You can read about Jessica's case and the re sentencing hearing by going to the following link.

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http://www.theprogressnews.com/news/crime/hearing-held-for-holtmeyer-re-sentencing/article_afd1fb31-cefe-582d-8c3b-9b6199336118.html

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Sheena

MeLisa

Inhale the Future, Exhale the Past, Relax and Breathe in the Present...

At some point ya have to realize that some people can stay in your HEART but not in your LIFE!

Friendships forged, through mutual trust,

behind prison walls...for life! 

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MeLisa, is a former juvenile lifer, served 25 years at SCI Muncy from the age of 17. She is now 42. Freed on June 30.

A comprehensive look at the make-up of Pennsylvania's prison system.

Research and graphs by "The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration" a group working to end life Without Parole/Death By Incarceration sentences in Pennsylvania.  (Click on the image to enlarge)

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-- The Campaign to Restore Meaningful June 2016Commutation  rallied in Pennsylvania's State Capitol, Harrisburg on Thursday June 23, 2016 to present a 12 point commutation platform to State lawmakers and to show our support of HB 2135 - abolish LWOP sentences (sponsored by Dawkins, Acosta and Brown).   

Mae Hadley (daughter Danielle Hadley) 

Darlene Williams (daughter Brittany Williams)

Stephanie Woodward (daughter Kyra Clardy)

Meeting with Governor Tom Wolf's Staff

Donna Hill (daughter  Charmine Pfender)

Patrick Crawley, Senator Stewart Greenleaf's Office

Ellen Melchiondo, co-developer of WLRP,  has been championing the rights of women lifers for more than 6 years.  Ellen's dedication has earned her a much deserved award.  Thank you Ellen for all you do.

June 2016

Rally at the State Capitol

The Campaign to Restore Meaningful Commutation  rallied in Pennsylvania's State Capitol, Harrisburg on Thursday June 23, 2016 to present a 12 point commutation platform to State lawmakers and to show our support of HB 2135 - abolish LWOP sentences (sponsored by Dawkins, Acosta and Brown).   

Message from the Campaign to Restore Meaningful Commutation:  

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Mass incarceration in Pennsylvania continues to impact our communities across the state; there are an increasing number of aging people in prison serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentences, many of whom have been incarcerated for decades. Commutation, an act of mercy by the state, is the only way lifers can have a chance to be parole eligible, but right now the commutation process is essentially unusable for lifers. 

rMany lifers have changed very much during their time in prison, and want to give back to their communities and educate youth to keep them from following in their footsteps. Statistically, aging lifers represent the least likely subset toeoffend. 

 

           

With reforms, the

In the last 25 years, only 8 Men and -0- women or trans people have had their life sentences commuted. 
Campaigne to Restore Meaningful Commutation believes the commutation process could be used justly and effectively to release prisoners who are not a threat to public safety, returning them to their families and communities, and also relieving the unnecessary and enormous state costs of their continued incarceration.


We believe mercy is a component of a true justice system, even in situations where irreparable harm has occurred, including murder. We advocate that a mandatory punitive response such as Life Without Parole does not prevent further violence in our communities nor create a process for healing.

 

 

The Batts II Decision: The Favorable and Where It Falls Short

Click Here to read the entire Opinion.

Statement by Amistad Law Project and Abolitionist Law Center

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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court released their opinion in Commonwealth v. Batts (Batts II), a case that decided the appropriate procedure and sentence for the approximately 500 Pennsylvanians who were sentenced to Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP) before Miller v. Alabama. While Batts II reversed the unconstitutional sentence of life-without-parole imposed on 14 year-old Qu’eed Batts and created some procedural safeguards for the re-sentencings of the hundreds of Pennsylvanians serving an illegal JLWOP sentence, it also affirmed the status quo in current juvenile homicide sentencing and re-sentencing that imposes draconian mandatory minimums on children, all but guaranteeing they will not be released from prison until they spend more than twice their life span at the time of the offense locked in a cage. The legal work and organizing that has brought us this far has won crucial and necessary victories, but this opinion--and its shortcomings--remind us how much further we have to go to bring our people home so that they can demonstrate and live their redemption, be restored to the community, and be the leaders we need to foster healing and accountability. 

In Batts II, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed Batts’ sentence of JLWOP for the second time, holding that a JLWOP sentence was not supported by the evidence in the sentencing record, which showed that Batts--as a 14-year-old--had the attributes of a child recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as rendering him less culpable and that there was considerable evidence of his potential for rehabilitation. The Court also held that the Commonwealth must give a defendant notice if it is going to seek JLWOP. Critically, the Court established that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is permanently incorrigible and therefore incapable of rehabilitation when it is seeking a JLWOP sentence. These holdings should mark Batts II as a seminal opinion that finally brings Pennsylvania in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama outlawing mandatory life without parole for children. 

And because the notion of “permanent incorrigibility,” based on the idea that the government can determine that a child will never change or rehabilitate or mature for the rest of their life, is itself inherently unprovable and the judicial equivalent of the racist concept of the “Superpredator,” this decision marks an important milestone in ending JLWOP sentences once and for all.

We can pick apart the legal issues in the PA Supreme Court's decision in Batts II but we would be remiss if we missed the fact that Qu’eed Batts is a person. The Batts II opinion lays out the multiple systems that failed him and the difficult life he lived prior to the homicide that led to his incarceration. We can look at these 500 JLWOP cases in Pennsylvania as legal issues, but we must also look at the defendants in these cases as people, who, as children, did very harmful things, but who, because they were children, are especially capable of change and redemption. Anything less is an affront to justice.

We believe in real second chances. Many people sentenced to die in prison as kids, like Qu’eed Batts, never had a first chance. This is where Batts II falls extremely short. Since the U.S. Supreme Court, in Montgomery v. Louisiana, ruled that Miller was a new substantive rule of constitutional law, Philadelphia has slowly moved to comply with the ruling and to resentence the 300 juvenile lifers who were convicted and sentenced in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has looked to 18 Pa.C.S. §1102.1(a), which is the statute that the PA legislature passed in response to the 2012 Miller decision. It created a 35 year minimum for first degree murder for people who were 15 to 17 at the time of their offense. It also specifically does not apply to people who were sentenced before Miller that make up the vast majority of those still serving unconstitutional JLWOP sentences.

The PA Supreme Court’s acquiescence to what is happening in Philadelphia and across the state should focus our attention on 1102.1(a) itself. Why are children who even the Commonwealth does not contend are “irredeemable” forced to spend a minimum of 35 years in prison before they can go before a parole board and argue for release? Why, after serving a minimum of 35 years in prison, are these people forced to spend the rest of their lives on parole? Children have a greater capacity for reform. Most people age out of criminal behavior by their thirties. This re-sentencing scheme keeps people sentenced to die in prison as kids incarcerated into their late forties or early fifties, at the earliest, before they are afforded the opportunity for someone to take a look at their case and decide if they should get a second chance. 

Batts II is not a defeat but it is a call to continue fighting for justice and redemption and freedom. We don’t just want an end to the barbaric practice of sentencing children to die in prison. We also want a system that is transformative and fair.

The legislature, prosecutors, and courts in Pennsylvania are intent on conceding as little ground as they think they can get away with, holding the line like the segregationists of old, and seeking to preserve the punitive ethos and practices of a racist system of mass incarceration. It is our responsibility to fight this, to push the line further toward freedom and a new paradigm that centers restorative justice and the right to redemption.

SCI Muncy

Box 180 RT 405

Muncy, Pa 17756-0180

(570) 546-3171

Women Lifer's Resume Project of PA

PPS/WLRPPA
230 S Broad St., #605
Philadelphia, PA 19102
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Email:  wlrp.pa@gmail.com
Originators:  Brittany Williams & Sheena King
Co-Developers:  Ellen Melchiondo & Darlene Williams

SCI Cambridge Springs

451 Fullerton Ave

Cambridge Springs, Pa 16403

(814) 398-5400

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