(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – A sign on a door at The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Feb. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) Lawmakers in Harrisburg do not have too much longer to decide on a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in March that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for second-degree murder convictions are unconstitutional.

This charge is also known as felony murder and it is used when someone participates in a violent crime which ends in death. 

This decision stemmed from the case against Derek Lee, who is now serving a sentence of mandatory life in prison for felony murder after a jury convicted him of the 2014 killing of Leonard Butler in the West End of Pittsburgh.

The deadline to decide on this ruling is July 24th.