In a huge win for grassroots organizing, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on March 26 that mandatory life sentences without parole for second-degree murder—also known as Death by Incarceration—are unconstitutional. Before this ruling, people who were convicted of any involvement in a crime that led to a death, regardless of their individual culpability, received the same sentence as the person convicted of murder.
This victory in the long struggle to dismantle Death by Incarceration was led by Amistad Law Project and Abolitionist Law Center, alongside a coalition of other movement organizations.
Kris Henderson, co-executive director of Amistad Law Project, told Bread & Roses: “This win is the result of decades of movement building by grassroots organizations both inside and outside prisons walls, like the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration. Incarcerated people have mounted legal arguments in law libraries and mobilized their families and communities out here for their liberation. This win could lead to over 1,000 people who were sentenced to die in prison coming home, and they will be an enormous gift to our communities.”