When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Derek Lee that mandatory sentences of life without parole for felony murder violate Article 1, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania constitution (banning cruel punishment), it did so with the input of two members of the Temple Law faculty: Rachel López and Marsha Levick (JD ‘76). Both professors submitted amicus briefs in the case, and the Court’s reasoning built on groundwork laid by Levick and the Juvenile Law Center in a line of US Supreme Court cases banning adult sentences for youth.
López, who holds the Leonard Barrack ’68 Chair in Law, filed a brief on behalf of a group of UN human rights experts that included Dr. Ashwini K.P., the sixth Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; and members of the Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER), including Judge Akua Kuenyehia (Chair), Dr. Tracie Keesee, and Professor Juan Méndez. These UN experts’ conclusion that life without parole is a human rights violation resulted from advocacy by López and a broader coalition, which in turn was informed by López’s scholarship. In particular, Redeeming Justice, which was co-authored with Terrell Carter and Kempis Songster, both of whom were sentenced to life without parole, laid out the legal arguments marshalled in the brief. The Court cited Professor López’s brief and its invocation of international human rights law, noting that “Pennsylvania’s use of life without parole sentences is out of step with most regions of the world, which rarely employ life sentences, even with parole; violates international human rights law; and disproportionately impacts ‘Black and Latinx’ Pennsylvanians, in violation of international human rights treaties.”
Levick, who holds the Phyllis W. Beck Visiting Chair in Law and also filed an amicus brief in the case, was instrumental in a line of US Supreme Court cases from 2005-2016 banning adult sentences for youth as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. In Roper v. Simmons, the Court banned the death penalty for youth under age 18; in Graham v. Florida, the Court banned life without parole sentences for youth under 18 convicted of non-homicide crimes; and in Miller v. Alabama, the Court banned mandatory sentences of life without parole for youth under 18 convicted of homicide crimes. The Juvenile Law Center, with Levick as co-founder and Chief Legal Officer, participated in each case. In holding that mandatory life without parole for felony murder violated the cruel punishments clause of the Pennsylvania constitution, the PA Supreme Court looked to the reasoning in Miller and Graham:
“Defining with exactness Section 13’s notion of cruelty would be a difficult endeavor; however, this appeal does not call for an exhaustive delineation and we need not decide for all contexts the meaning of the constitutional language ‘cruel punishment.’ Rather, with respect to the unique constitutional challenge before us, we believe it sufficient to consider notions of culpability, severity, and penological justifications ─ akin to the factors identified by the United States Supreme Court in creating its framework in Miller and Graham to resolve its Eighth Amendment jurisprudence regarding juveniles ─ to assess whether the mandatory imposition of a sentence of life without parole for all offenders convicted of second degree murder is consistent with the protections found in Section 13.”
Levick noted an added significance to the decision: “how important the Pa Supreme Court’s ruling was in holding that our cruel punishments clause provides greater protection than the 8th Amendment and must not be read in lockstep . . . . it is important to remember we have 50 state Constitutions that in many cases provide extremely strong protections for individual rights. The Pa Constitution has numerous provisions that go beyond federal constitutional guarantees.”
As a final “full circle” note, López added that “Saleem Holbrook, the Executive Director of the Abolitionist Law Center ( the group that litigated this case), was a juvenile lifer freed after Miller v. Alabama” – and will be joining her in the classroom to co-teach a human rights advocacy course next fall.
“One of the highest priorities at the heart of Temple University’s strategic plan, Forward with Purpose, is place-based impact,” said Interim Kean Family Dean Kristen Murray. “Through their work here and in the cases that came before, Professors López and Levick are advancing this commitment by helping to shape the law in a way that will increase justice for many people throughout the Commonwealth. We’re deeply proud of them both.”