In a House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda posted May 25,2016 to all House members, Representative Jason Dawkins announced he will be introducing a bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that will abolish Life-Without-Parole (LWOP) imprisonment in Pennsylvania and extend parole eligibility to those sentenced to Life imprisonment.
On June 9, 2016, State Representatives Dawkins, Acosta, and V. Brown introduced House Bill (HB) 2135, which calls on the General Assembly to amend the 18 Pa. C. S. 1102.1 Murder sentencing law for Child Offenders, 42 Pa.C.S. 9714(a)(2) Sentences for second and subsequent offenses law, and 61 Pa.C.S. 6137(a)(1)(3) Parole power law.
HB 2135 simply removes the LWOP language from the 1102.1, while failing to correct the unconstitutionality of the entire 1102.1 law itself.
The 1102.1 is unconstitutional to Child Offenders sentenced under its guidelines, because it’s contrary to the requirements in Miller vs. Alabama in that: (1) it is a mandatory sentencing scheme based solely upon a child offenders’ “age” while negating other mitigating factors; (2) it divests the Trial court of any discretion to impose a lesser sentence than the mandatory sentencing scheme; (3) it is not an “Individualized” sentence determined by a Jury (and not by the Court, i.e. a Judge); (4) it requires Child Offenders over the age 15 to be sentenced to a greater mandatory minimum sentence than those under age 15 on the basis of “age”; (5) it sentences Child Offenders to a greater minimum sentence of 25-30-35 years-to-Life sentences than the national consensus of minimum-to-Life given to adult offenders; and (6) Life-With-Parole and LWOP sentences are both unconstitutional for Child Offenders.
Child Offenders sentenced under 1102.1 should be arguing the above-said issues to constitutionally challenge their sentences on their direct appeal review.
HB 2135 removes the LWOP language from 9714(a)(2) and 6137(a)(1)(3) as well. Furthermore, HB2135 amends 6137 to give power to the parole board to afford prisoners sentenced to Life imprisonment parole eligibility only after the expiration of the minimum term of imprisonment fixed by the court [or] after serving 15 years of imprisonment. [If] enacted into law, HB 2135 would have retroactive effect to ALL Life imprisoned prisoners.
HB 2135 does not amend the 18 Pa.C.S. 1102 Murder law for First and Second degree murder, because sentences for those degrees of murder already require a “Life imprisonment” term. Therefore, prisoners sentenced to Life imprisonment in accordance to the 1102 Murder law, would be parole eligibile under the amended 6137 Parole law were it to be enacted into law.
Although Representative Dawkin’s HB 2135 does not seek to outright abolish Life-With-Parole and LWOP sentences for Child Offenders in its amendment 1102.1, the Bill does abolish LWOP (Death-By-Incarceration) sentencing and would establish Parole Eligibility for ALL Lifers after serving 15 years of imprisonment.
HB 2135 should receive the full support of Families of Lifer Prisoners and Organizations seeking to end LWOP.
Victory is near! Lifers and their Families must seize the time by working ever harder to advance our campaign to end LWOP.
From the Belly of the Beast, at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona. Thank you for listening.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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