(Caption and Credit for Photo: <p>Derek Lee’s counsel from the Abolitionist Law Center argued the court cannot and did not look at individual culpability because second-degree murder is murder committed during the commission of another felony. (Adobe Stock)</p>)

(Reported by Danielle Smith, Keystone News Service)

(Harrisburg, PA) The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided on March 26th that the state’s mandatory life-without-parole law is unconstitutional. Lawmakers have now missed an important follow-up deadline to establish a new sentencing scheme for felony murder. The Commonwealth v. Lee case centered on Derek Lee, a man who was involved in a 2014 Pittsburgh home robbery when his accomplice fatally shot a resident. He was given a mandatory life sentence despite not firing the gun. The court gave the state’s General Assembly 120 days to come up with new rules for sentencing, but that deadline passed on July 24th, meaning the ruling is now in effect. Elizabeth Wood-Bennett with the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania explains that Lee isn’t exonerated of his crime. The ruling will impact future sentencing decisions, but there’s still the unresolved issue of “retroactivity” – whether others serving the same sentence are also owed a resentencing. Woods-Bennett says hundreds of others serving the same mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole still remain in legal limbo. In its decision, the Court recognized that people convicted of felony murder can have vastly different levels of responsibility.