HARRISBURG, PA — Approximately 1,100 incarcerated individuals in Pennsylvania are now eligible to request new sentences after state lawmakers failed to meet a court-mandated midnight deadline to establish a new sentencing framework.
The legislative deadline follows a landmark March decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which ruled that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for second-degree murder—often known as felony murder—are unconstitutional. The high court had granted the General Assembly a 120-day window to enact a statutory fix, including potential mandatory minimums.
With that deadline now passed without final legislative agreement, inmates currently serving life sentences for second-degree murder can begin filing petitions for resentencing through the court system.
House lawmakers had approved a proposal allowing individuals convicted of second-degree murder to become eligible for parole consideration after serving 30 years. Under that plan, specific minimum sentencing guidelines would be set by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, and the legislation also introduced provisions for medical release for qualifying inmates.
However, without a compromise signed into law before the clock ran out, the decision now shifts back to individual judges across Pennsylvania to evaluate resentencing requests on a case-by-case basis.
