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May 5, 2021 18 mins

In this episode of What Is Life? you'll hear from Matthew Garcia, a man convicted of felony murder in the 1990's for his role in a robbery that resulted in a retired Philadelphia police officer being killed.

Matthew did not directly kill the retired officer and has said he actually fled the scene before the killing occurred, but because of the felony murder doctrine, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Matthew had turned 18 only a month before the robbery and killing, meaning he is ineligible for resentencing under the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Miller and Montgomery, which deemed mandatory life sentences for children to be unconstitutional. 

One of Matthew's co-defendants, who is two months younger him, has since been resentenced and released because of the decisions.

PLSE report on race and age and felony murder in Pennsylvania: https://www.plsephilly.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/PLSE_SecondDegreeMurder_and_Race_Apr2021.pdf

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