People affected by the state’s felony murder law reflect on the ruling and the uncertain path ahead. | The Marshall Project
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Filed<br>6:00 a.m. EDT
07.31.2026
Life Inside
Pennsylvania Struck Down Mandatory Life Without Parole for 2nd-Degree Murder. What Comes Next?
People affected by the state’s felony murder law reflect on the ruling and the uncertain path ahead.
Tara Anand for The Marshall Project
By Aala Abdullahi
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In March, in a bombshell ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down mandatory life in prison without parole for a second-degree murder charge also known as felony murder. Under the law, people who had participated in felonies such as robberies, kidnappings and arson — but who did not kill victims — faced the same punishment as those who did.
At the center of the ruling was Derek Lee, a participant in a 2014 robbery of a Pittsburgh home that left a man dead. Lee’s co-conspirator fatally shot the man while Lee was elsewhere in the house. Still, Lee was convicted of felony murder and automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lawmakers had 120 days to figure out a new sentencing scheme. Although the state House and Senate each passed a bill, they failed to reach a consensus before the July 24 deadline. This means the ruling has now taken effect, allowing Lee’s resentencing to proceed and requiring judges to use their discretion when sentencing people in pending and future second-degree murder cases. The legislature can still pass a new sentencing law when it reconvenes in September or at any point in the future.
At question is whether the law will be retroactive and apply to more than 1,100 people serving life without parole for second-degree murder, according to Bret Grote, who helped argue the Lee case and is the legal director of the progressive Abolitionist Law Center. But he is optimistic about the ruling: “It is an opening that suggests that the system of punishment should not be built around the notion that some people are disposable,” he said.
With the path forward still unclear, The Marshall Project spoke with several stakeholders about the impact of the law on their lives and what the change might mean. The conversations have been edited and condensed for clarity.
“At some point, mercy and punishment have to meet.”
At 18, Avis Lee acted as a lookout during a robbery that ended in a fatal shooting. She was sentenced to life without parole at 20. Her sentence was eventually commuted by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2021, after she served more than 40 years. Today, she serves as a re-entry resource coordinator for Let's Get Free, an organization she co-created while she was still inside.
Q: What made felony murder so complex?
The issue with felony murder was, number one, it carried the same sentence as first-degree murder. Every other degree has a different sentence. Third-degree doesn't have the same sentence as second. Voluntary manslaughter doesn't have the same sentence as manslaughter. But second-degree murder had the same sentence as first. It made no sense.
The second thing is that everybody got treated the same, no matter how peripherally involved they were, or whether they were the lookout or the driver. Some people don’t even know about the murder until after the fact. Everybody that got convicted and didn’t take a plea deal got mandatory life in prison.
Q: What has the ruling meant to you?
This is like a dream come true for me. It's long overdue. Prior to this ruling, many people would have died in prison. That's the purpose of the sentence: death by incarceration. I have a timesheet where it said minimum date, all caps: L-I-F-E. Maximum date, all caps: L-I-F-E.
I asked other people if I could see their time sheets, and their minimum date would say 5, their maximum date would say 10. The more time I served, the more I couldn't believe it. I'm like, ‘I'm still in here. They want me to die in jail.’
Q: How should the state measure or think about blame going forward?
I've never killed anyone ever. Literally. I have killed bugs, a couple mice; that's it. And I served 40 years, 6 months and 12 days for a murder that I personally did not commit. If the Board of Pardons hadn’t commuted my sentence, I’d still be sitting in prison right now on year 45.
Crime does...