<\/p>\n
This story was co-published with Truthout<\/a>.<\/p>\n In late March, Pennsylvania\u2019s Supreme Court issued a momentous ruling<\/a> overturning mandatory life sentences for people convicted of felony murder, also known as second-degree murder. Activists and advocates hailed<\/a> the ruling as a victory that was years in the making and has the potential to impact the lives of more than a thousand people<\/a> in the state, a majority of whom are Black.<\/p>\n Those sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) are, by definition, never allowed to go before a parole board and can only ever win freedom if the governor of their state grants them clemency. The ACLU<\/a> calls LWOP sentences \u201cpermanent removal from society with no chance of reentry, no hope of freedom,\u201d and therefore, \u201cshort of execution, the harshest imaginable punishment.\u201d It\u2019s no wonder activists involved in ending LWOP refer to it as \u201cdeath by incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n Five states<\/a> \u2014 Pennsylvania, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina \u2014 require mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for felony murder convictions. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights<\/a>, Pennsylvania has the nation\u2019s highest per capita rate of people serving death by incarceration sentences. Such a conviction \u2014 in spite of its name \u2014 doesn\u2019t mean the person accused is directly responsible for a death. One can also be convicted of a felony murder if one\u2019s actions indirectly and unintentionally resulted in someone\u2019s death.<\/p>\n That was the case for a Black man named Derek Lee, who in 2014 was involved in a robbery where his accomplice\u2019s actions resulted in a death. Because of Pennsylvania\u2019s mandatory sentencing law, Lee was condemned to spend the rest of his life in prison. The Abolitionist Law Center<\/a> filed an appeal on his behalf, resulting in the historic Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that mandatory LWOP for second-degree murder was in violation of the state constitution\u2019s prohibition on cruel punishment.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us who do this work know people who have been in for 20, 30, 40, 50 years even,\u201d said Kris Henderson, co-founder and co-executive director of Amistad Law Project<\/a> and founding member of the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration<\/a> (CADBI). \u201cMany people who could come home today, would be an asset to their communities \u2026 but there\u2019s just really no mechanism for them to come home right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Appeal in Your Inbox<\/p>\n Subscribe to our newsletters for regular updates, analysis and context straight to your email.<\/p>\n Following the court ruling, Pennsylvania\u2019s lawmakers have 120 days to create a mechanism ensuring the state\u2019s compliance so that people like Lee have recourse. Henderson hopes that \u201cthe legislature will pass a bill that will allow all people who are serving death by incarceration for felony murder to have a chance to come home, that they will all be parole eligible after a certain number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n People who are sentenced to LWOP are often very young<\/a> when they begin serving their sentences. That was the case with Phillip Ocampo<\/a>, who, according to his mother Lorraine Haw, was only 18 years old when he was arrested and has served 32 years in Pennsylvania prisons. \u201cIf this Supreme Court ruling hadn\u2019t happened, he was basically going to be in prison for the rest of his life,\u201d said Haw.<\/p>\n The groundwork for the court ruling was laid more than a decade ago when CADBI was founded. Henderson recalled it was a time when Philadelphia had been home to \u201cthis anti-carceral, anti-prison movement for years and years. And so many of us had been working together for years in different sorts of configurations at different moments.\u201d<\/p>\n CADBI\u2019s co-founders began by sending letters to people in prison serving LWOP sentences, urging them to send family members and loved ones to an organizing meeting. \u201cHundreds of people showed up,\u201d said Henderson. \u201cHundreds of people who didn\u2019t know anything about a movement to abolish death by incarceration, didn\u2019t know anything about organizing in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Among them was Ocampo\u2019s mother. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone in front of lawmakers, we\u2019ve gone to legislators, we\u2019ve gone inside prisons to talk about it. We\u2019ve held rallies,\u201d said Haw. Ocampo is her only child and Haw has made it her life\u2019s goal to free him and others like him. \u201cIt was hard at the beginning because every time I talked about my son, I would have to cry. But I\u2019m not there only for my son. I\u2019m there for everybody that\u2019s in the same situation as he is.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas Schilk<\/a> is a writer and artist serving a LWOP sentence in Pennsylvania. In an interview, his sister Joanne Schilk said, \u201cMy brother always wants people to know \u2026 although he did not kill anyone or [have] the intent to kill anyone, he did real harm, which he believes he should be accountable for.\u201d She feels that after 42 years in prison, \u201che has taken accountability for his crime and has proven to be deserving of a second chance at freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Haw, Joanne Schilk has been active with CADBI for years, attending rallies, making legislative visits, and lobbying state lawmakers to end LWOP sentences as well as supporting medical parole and compassionate release bills. \u201cI helped recruit people from other counties such as Bucks and Lancaster to give them a voice and to encourage involvement, to lean on lawmakers by being a voice for their loved ones serving life sentences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That activism, together with sympathetic people in positions of power, paved the way for the Supreme Court ruling. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who filed an amicus brief<\/a> in support of Lee\u2019s appeal, was formerly the state attorney general and had been directly involved<\/a> in commuting life sentences. In Philadelphia, where more than 500 people are serving LWOP, District Attorney Larry Krasner<\/a> has also publicly expressed support for an end to mandatory life sentences.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought my eyeballs were going to be swollen from so much crying,\u201d said Haw, recalling how she felt when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling was announced. \u201cI was so ecstatic, and I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n Schilk concurred, saying, \u201cI absolutely could not believe that something had finally happened in such a huge way. I felt like I couldn\u2019t breathe, I was so happy. I just sobbed and shook.\u201d<\/p>\n The reliance on LWOP sentences nationwide is in flux, caught in a tug-of-war between abolitionist grassroots activists and \u201ctough-on-crime\u201d politicians. Even in states where such sentences are not mandatory, LWOP can be applied to people who did not intend to kill or whose accomplices committed the murder in question. According to a 2025 report<\/a> by The Sentencing Project, 16 percent of people in prison nationwide \u2014 that\u2019s about 200,000 people \u2014 are serving life sentences. The proportion of those with LWOP sentences is up 68 percent from 2003.<\/p>\n Yet, since 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in several cases<\/a> that life sentences for people convicted as juveniles were unconstitutional (although the court\u2019s new conservative majority<\/a> has taken the court in the opposite direction).<\/p>\n After the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s rulings on juvenile lifers, hundreds of incarcerated Pennsylvanians were able to come home, and according to Henderson, some among them are now involved in the movement to end LWOP for everyone. \u201cThey were leaders when they were incarcerated, and now are leaders at home, literally as executive directors of organizations, working for different organizations, really helping lead our movement,\u201d said Henderson.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling is part of a nationwide trend to challenge life sentences without parole. In 2018, California<\/a> changed how it applies LWOP sentences, requiring intent to murder. As a result, hundreds of people had their sentences reduced<\/a>. However, thousands remain stuck behind bars, including Dortell Williams<\/a>, a prominent essayist and activist. Efforts to soften and overturn LWOP sentences have stalled in the state<\/a>. States like New York<\/a> and Minnesota<\/a> are also in the midst of reforms to LWOP sentencing.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, hundreds of families await the possibility of their loved ones being released. \u201cOur hope,\u201d said Henderson, \u201cis that the legislature acts, and acts quickly, to allow all these people to be able to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked what she would do if her son were released, Haw said, \u201cI tell everybody, the day my son comes home, y\u2019all better go see him and get your \u2018hellos\u2019 and your \u2018goodbyes,\u2019 because I plan to hide my son for two weeks to keep him for me, just me, just him and I, to catch up on all the years that I didn\u2019t get to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n Schilk is also hopeful about her brother\u2019s potential release. \u201cFinally, there is a real chance for our loved ones to make a case for themselves and to be given a fair sentence for their release from prison,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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