Uncertainty ahead for people convicted of second degree murder amid legislative inaction

Terri Harper is sad but praying for “resolution and relief” after the Pennsylvania General Assembly failed to agree on new sentencing guidelines for her and the more than 1,000 other people incarcerated for second degree murder in the state.

With the state legislature missing its court-directed deadline to adopt new guidelines on Friday, Harper and the others will have to wait until the Pennsylvania Supreme Court – which ruled mandatory life-without-parole sentences for second degree murder unconstitutional in March – decides whether its ruling can be applied retroactively, which would allow her to petition for a new sentence.

“As my family has expressed, this is a roller coaster,” said Harper, who has served more than three decades at State Correctional Institution Muncy. “It is that and more, but we have to remember that the victims and victims’ families are on this same ride, but quite possibly, with a very different take.”

The State Senate, controlled by Republicans, and State House, controlled by Democrats, separately approved new sentencing guidelines along largely partisan lines. Senate Bill 1400, passed in June, created a sentencing minimum of 35 years except in cases where the defendant met a strict set of criteria proving they had no intention, knowledge or participation in the murder itself, in which case they could be sentenced to between 10 or 40 years.

House Bill 1042, passed just before the deadline, allowed most of those convicted of second degree murder to seek parole after 30 years and expanded eligibility for compassionate release, which allows early release for incarcerated people who are seeking treatment for a terminal disease and have less than a year to live.

Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney at the Abolitionist Law Center, said the legislature missed an opportunity to provide relief to people who “never should have been sentenced to die in the first place.”

“The legislature’s failure to meaningfully reform sentencing around 2nd degree murder is indicative of its general unwillingness to undo past wrongs,” Cozzens said. “It leaves over 1,000 people serving an unconstitutional sentence.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling applied to all cases going forward but left the question of retroactivity to the legislature. Cozzens believes the court will eventually allow its ruling to be made retroactive, he said. The state legislature could still pass new sentencing guidelines at any time, though the chambers are in recess until September.

State Rep. Andre Carroll said he opposed the Republican-led Senate bill because of its 35-year minimum for parole eligibility, and because it didn’t give the judicial branch the flexibility to look at the specific facts of each case.

“Thirty-five years could make the difference in a woman becoming a mother and a person becoming a parent,” Carroll said. “As a person who was, didn’t have a father for the first 20 years of my life because he was incarcerated … through my lived experience, I don’t see that as just or justice.”

A joint statement from Senate Republican leadership slammed House Democrats for not allowing votes on SB1400 and an earlier version of HB1042.

“On the 119th day, House Democrats still had the opportunity to join the Senate in keeping our communities safe,” the statement read. “Instead of allowing a vote on either of the bipartisan bills passed by the Senate, they chose to engage in political theater and failed to produce any feasible product to protect our communities and victims’ families.”

In a statement, Gov. Josh Shapiro asked Senate Republicans to return to Harrisburg and vote for the House bill.

“While some have played politics and suggested 1,100 people could be immediately released from prison — that is simply not true,” Shapiro said. “It’s time to end the politicization and demagoguery and instead work to provide individualized sentencing within a predictable and consistent framework.”

Celeste Trusty, the founder of North Star Advocacy Strategies, a criminal justice advocacy organization, and former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, said the lack of legislative action on the sentencing guidelines affects not only those serving time for second degree murder but their families, taxpayers who are bearing the cost of incarcerating them, and county courts and public defenders’ offices who will be handling the flood of petitions for resentencing.

“Every single day, people have to wake up serving an unconstitutional sentence, having their families and themselves not knowing what’s next, not knowing what’s coming, and it really does send a terrible message, I think, to the public, to the voting public, that this is not a priority,” Trusty said. “That our legislators are willing to go on summer recess and allow all of these unconstitutional sentences to stand.”

Harper believes her resolution will come.

“This has been a long 35 [years], and I’ve been able to survive, mature and achieve throughout, all because I trust God, and God willing, I’ll be well while we wait,” Harper said.