Join the Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and the Center for Constitutional Rights for oral argument in our case, Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. Abolitionist Law Center Legal Director Bret Grote will argue on behalf of plaintiffs before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. 

The first argument begins at 9:30 a.m. EST, and Scott will be the seventh case to be argued. This will be a telephonic argument, and the audio will stream live on the court’s YouTube channel.  

Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole was filed on behalf of six individuals serving mandatory sentences of Death By Incarceration (DBI), also known as life without the possibility of parole in the criminal legal system, for “felony murder,” or crimes in which they did not take or did not intend to take a life. This lawsuits builds off of years of organizing and advocacy by activists, organizers, and lawyers at the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC), Amistad Law Project (ALP), and the Coalition to Abolish Death By Incarceration (CADBI). By seeking to demonstrate the gross disproportionality of Death-By-Incarceration sentences in relation to defendants who do not kill or do not intend to kill, and the failure of such sentences to serve any legitimate interest in the criminal legal system, this case aims to have establish a right to parole eligibility for our six plaintiffs and the more than 1100 people serving life sentences in Pennsylvania for felony murder.