PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A bipartisan slate of lawmakers in both the State House and Senate are introducing legislation that would end the mandatory life sentence for a second-degree murder conviction in Pennsylvania.
Second-degree murder in Pennsylvania, also called “felony murder,” carries a mandatory life sentence with no possibility for parole. Someone can be convicted of second-degree murder if they are an accomplice in certain felonies that result in death, with no review of their level of participation in the crime.
In the State Senate, Western Pennsylvania Republican Camera Bartolotta and Philadelphia Democrat Sharif Street had teamed up to sponsor a bill that would align Pennsylvania with all but one other state in offering the possibility of parole after 25 years.
“There are people who are in prison for life without the possibility of parole who never even intended to harm anyone. Some people didn't even see what happened,” Bartolotta said, noting 1,100 people in Pennsylvania prisons are serving a life sentence and 700 of them have served more than 20 years.
Street says in addition to the moral and ethical reasons, there’s also a financial angle, as the state prison system spent more than $400 million on medical care for elderly inmates in 2024.
“We could channel that money into a lot of things — into education, health care, a host of other things — but we shouldn't be wasting it on locking up senior citizens,” Street said.
State House Judiciary Committee Chairman and Montgomery County Democrat Tim Briggs has introduced a similar bill in the State House.