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An attorney for the Pennsylvania Parole Board argued Monday that Commonwealth Court is not the right place to hear a challenge to the state’s mandatory life-without-parole penalty for second-degree murder.
Six people serving that sentence filed a petition against the state Board of Probation and Parole in July, arguing that punishment is unconstitutional and violates the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
In Pennsylvania, about 1,100 people are serving life without parole for second-degree, or felony, murder, which is the death of someone during the commission of a crime. That includes 152 people from Allegheny County and nine from Westmoreland County.