Derek Lee argues the sentence for felony murder is unconstitutionally disproportionate and cruel 

Oct 8, 2024, Pittsburgh – The application of the felony murder rule, which holds liable for murder a person who participates in a felony that leads to a death, is particularly extreme in Pennsylvania because the mandatory minimum sentence is life without parole. Derek Lee challenged his sentence today before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where his lawyers argued that, because he did not intend to kill anyone, his sentence is disproportionate and cruel under both the Pennsylvania and U.S. constitutions. 

In Pennsylvania, 1,100 people are serving life for felony murder, and 70 percent of them are Black people. Mr. Lee seeks to end the state’s ban on parole for all those convicted of felony murder.

“It is not taken lightly, the impact these crimes have made in the lives of those who've had to live with the reality that someone they love is no longer with them. It is because of these remorseful burdens that many of us have committed our lives, and the time that we're serving, to transforming ourselves and becoming a better person each day,” said Derek Lee. “It is my prayer that this court not only see's the constitutional issues before them, but also, they recognize that among the men and women incarcerated right now in Pennsylvania are people who have value, and have something significant to contribute to our families, communities and our society at large. God bless.”

Mr. Lee’s case could have broad implications for the effort to reduce or end life imprisonment, a defining feature of the U.S. criminal legal system. Lee’s case emerges from a grassroots movement led by incarcerated people and their families who refer to life imprisonment without parole as death by incarceration (DBI). With 5,200 people serving DBI sentences, Pennsylvania has the country’s highest per capita rate. More than 50,000 people are serving DBI sentences in the United States – 83 percent of the world’s total. 

“Death by incarceration for felony murder stacks an incomprehensibly cruel punishment on top of a nonsensical and regressive criminal offense,” said Quinn Cozzens, staff attorney at the Abolitionist Law Center. “The vast majority of states do not require permanent incarceration for felony murder, making Pennsylvania one of the only places in the world where this punishment occurs. Derek Lee is one of many who, if given the opportunity, can prove the value of redemption and restoration as guiding ideals for how we address harm.”   

In 2014, Lee and another man allegedly broke into a house in Pittsburgh to commit robbery. According to the prosecution, Lee was upstairs when the other man shot and killed someone in the basement. Mr. Lee did not kill anyone but was sentenced to life in prison and has already served 10 years.  In court today, Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center argued that Lee’s sentence violates both the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment, and the Pennsylvania constitution, which bans “cruel” punishment. Lee is also represented by Amistad Law Project and the Center for Constitutional Rights.  

“Life without parole, or death by incarceration, is an incredibly cruel sentence for anyone,” said Nikki Grant, Policy Director at Amistad Law Project. “It takes away any possibility of coming home to one's community and loved ones or of showing that you have changed for the better. In Mr. Lee's case, it is perhaps even more cruel because he didn't kill or intend to kill anyone. It is our hope that Mr. Lee and the over 1,000 people like him will have the chance to show how they have personally transformed and can make our communities safer. We know this sentence is deeply immoral. It's time for Pennsylvania to show that it understands that and declare this sentence unconstitutional.”

Like many other incarcerated people, Lee has managed to grow over the years despite the ever-present brutality and dearth of rehabilitative resources in prisons. According to his mother, Betty Lee, he preaches in prison as the assistant to the chaplain and was appointed to the executive board of the Pennsylvania Lifers’ Association. If he were permitted to return to his community in Pittsburgh, he would be a powerful role model for young men, she says. 

“As high as the numbers are in Pennsylvania of people sentenced to life with no possibility of parole, they are only part of the picture of the impact of these sentences, which create community-level loss, with Black and Brown communities bearing the most,” said Pardiss Kebriaei, a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The legal cruelty is that none of this is even arguably necessary in the case of someone like Mr. Lee; his automatic sentence didn’t allow for any judgment about what made actual sense.” 

Amicus briefs were filed in the case by former Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretaries John Wetzel and George Little, the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the MacArthur Justice Center, Eighth Amendment Law Scholars, and The Sentencing Project, Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, Fair and Just Prosecution, and FAMM.

Read all the briefs and documents on the Center for Constitutional Rights website here.

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. Abolitionist Law Center litigates on behalf of people whose human rights have been violated in prison, educates the general public about the evils of mass incarceration, and works to develop a mass movement against the American punishment system by building alliances and nurturing solidarity across social divisions. Follow Abolitionist Law Center on Facebook, @AbolitionistLC on Twitter, and @Abolitionistlc on Instagram.

Amistad Law Project is a public interest law firm and organizing project working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania. Founded and led by Black feminists, we work to abolish death by incarceration, create alternatives to policing, and get our communities the material resources and power they need to thrive. Follow us on social media: facebook.com/AmistadLaw, @AmistadLaw on Twitter and Instagram.