DEREK LEE Appellant AMICI CURIAE BRIEF OF THE SENTENCING PROJECT, FAIR AND JUST PROSECUTION, A PROJECT OF THE TIDES CENTER, & FAMM By Allowance of Appeal from the Judgment of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania entered June 13, 2023 at No. [...] Because this case concerns the ability of individuals who did not kill, did not intend to kill, and could not foresee a loss of human life, to challenge their sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, it raises questions of fundamental importance to The Sentencing Project. [...] In exercising its own judgment, a court weighs the culpability of the convicted individual against the severity of the crime in question and determines whether the challenged punishment serves legitimate penological goals. [...] Even if that were not the case, it has frequently been observed that the cruel-punishments prohibition of the Pennsylvania Constitution is at least as protective of individuals’ rights as are the provisions of the Eighth Amendment. [...] The felony-murder rule represents one of the very few instances in criminal law where the element of intent is waived: to secure a felony-murder conviction in Pennsylvania, the only criminal intent the Commonwealth needs to prove is that the accused intended to commit the felony during which a death occurred.
- Pages
- 43
- Published in
- United States of America
