Hearing Highlights Need for Accountability in Second-Degree Murder Sentencing

Pennsylvania’s lack of a clear sentencing framework for second-degree murder could produce inconsistent sentences, overwhelm courts and force victims’ families to repeatedly relive the murders of their loved ones, prosecutors testified during a House Republican Policy Committee hearing last week.

The hearing, “Protecting Pennsylvania: Accountability and Justice in Second-Degree Murder Sentencing,” was held after House Democrat leaders failed to allow consideration of a bipartisan solution to a March ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that found a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole was unconstitutional in second-degree murder cases.

As part of its decision, the court set a deadline of July 24 for the General Assembly to rectify the issue. The House was called into session July 23, and I was prepared to vote in favor of a bipartisan plan that would have set clear guidelines to ensure justice and protect public safety. It would have immediately gone to the governor and likely would have been signed into law.

Instead, House Democrats, who control the agenda in the House, amended a bill to significantly water down the sentences in these cases – cases where real people lost their lives and families and loved ones continue to suffer because of those actions. The bill also provides loopholes through which these criminals could avoid serving their sentences.