ATTORNEY GENERAL DAVE SUNDAY

 Attorney General Dave Sunday joins the conversation to shed light on a pressing matter that affects the lives of over 1,100 people in Pennsylvania, the clock is ticking. The state's Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory life imprisonment for second-degree murder is unconstitutional, leaving lawmakers with just one day to pass a replacement statute. 

The conversation touches on the nuances of the law, highlighting the difference between those who committed heinous crimes and those who were involved in lesser roles. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a clear sentencing structure in place to ensure fairness for all parties involved, including victims, families, prosecutors, and defendants.

If you're interested in learning more about this critical issue and the potential consequences of inaction, tune in to this episode to hear Attorney General Sunday's insights and the urgent call to action.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Seven twelve to go until eight o'clock. Yesterday, Pennsylvania Attorney
General Dave Sunday and Senator Scott Martin and others held
a press conference about a decision that was made by
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling life imprisonment for second degree
murder unconstitutional and our legislature, the House as until tomorrow

(00:28):
to do something to rectify this. And on the phone
is Attorney General Dave Sunday. Welcome back to the show, sir, Good.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Morning, good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's always a pleasure to have you, but this is
not very pleasurable. We have to do something about this
law or many, many people convicted of heinous crimes have
sentences hanging in the balance.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Right, So I appreciate you covering this topic. And just
by way, a background for people to understand like what
this even means, because there's a lot of confusion in
the community on what we're even talking about here. And
so there are different levels of murder first degree murder,
second degree murder, third degree murder. We're talking about second

(01:17):
degree murder and what that is is that's when a
murder happens while someone is committing some of the most
serious crimes that we have in our crimes code, and
those are robbery, burglary, rape, arson, and kidnapping. And so

(01:37):
the law prior to the Supreme Court ruling, said that
it was a mandatory life sentence for people that committed
those crimes. The court recently ruled that that mandatory life
without parole sentence is unconstitutional, and the court gave the
legislature one hundred and twenty days to enact a replacement statute,

(01:58):
and that deadline is tomorrow. And so with that being said,
the goal of the press conference was to argue that
we have to have action here. There has to be
some some reasonable legislation in place, because if there's not,
then we have around eleven hundred people currently serving these

(02:20):
sentences in Pennsylvania. And you know, the deadline is tomorrow,
and I would argue that by Monday there'll be petitions
being filed by attorneys to get their clients out of prison.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
And when it comes to second degree murder, the people
who are saying, oh no, this is good, they're talking
about nobody's I said on the area yesterday, nobody here
is innocent. But they're saying there's a difference between some
of these people on the low end and the heinous

(02:52):
murderers that you talk about that end up pleading to
second degree murder figuring they'll be away for life. So
is there a margin there or not.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
So the answer to that question is yes, there is
a margin, and there are some individuals who were your
quote unquote lookout or get away drivers, right. And so
the way the law is written is if you acted
as a as in a conspiracy, for lack of a
better way to put it, if you're all co conspirators

(03:23):
to commit one of these crimes rape, our sin, robbery,
and any member of your conspiracy commits a murder, then
you're liable. What I will tell you is that, and
we've spoken to prosecutors all throughout Pennsylvania and I have
personally tried some of these cases in court that the vast,
vast majority of these cases are not the getaway driver.

(03:47):
There are individuals who committed these crimes right off the
bat too that I can think of. I had someone
that I prosecuted when I was a DA in York
who burglarized the home and left the victim duck tied,
duckt hates with their face in the carpet and they
died from positional asphyxiation. I had another case where someone
was trying to get into a home to commit a

(04:08):
burglary and he was shooting a gun through the front
door of the house and he killed an innocent person
standing on the other side of the door. So, with
all that being said, there are some cases that life
mandatory life in prison may not be appropriate, and that's
why this legislation needs to be in place so that

(04:30):
we can handle these cases appropriately. Meaning the most severe cases,
these individuals they need to go to jail. Oftentimes they
need to go to jail for life. So also needs
to provide an off ramp for people that are the
least calpable.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
So when let's just say they renig on what the
Senate sent them and they don't get something done, what
is the recourse of these and do they go to
an attorney general or I mean a district attorney like Krasner,

(05:08):
Do they go to somebody like that to recharge them
or is it a judge who gets to decide their disposition.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
So what happens is if the law is not if
there's no law put in place, and it's only the
court opinion the rules to day. Then what will happen
is there will be literally no no sentencing structure in
place by law. And so what will happen is in
each county where the individuals were prosecuted, the attorneys will

(05:42):
go to the court, the county court, and they'll file
a petition saying that based on this ruling, these defenders
need to be what's called resentenced. And so the defendants
will come back in court and the judge will look
at their case and re sentence them. And so of
course you'll have their attorney and then on the other side,

(06:03):
you will have the DA's offices in all the different
counties that will be in court arguing on behalf of
the victims and the victims families.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Wow wow wow. So tomorrow is the deadline. And the
fear that Senator Martin had is that they could mess
it all up by adding amendments. So that shouldn't be
there to the bill.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Right, And that is the fear. And it's also important
to note that you know this process, and one of
the reasons why I have been so vocal about it
is because you know, we need a statute in place
to ensure fundamental fairness not just for I mean this
is for everyone involved, for victims, families so that they

(06:51):
have input, for prosecutors, fairness, for the defendants. We believe
in the Constitution and we want to make sure that
everyone's treated the protections to day that they're entitled to.
And we can and it's very very very very difficult
to do that if we have no guidelines in place
from the legislature. So what that means, this is important

(07:11):
every single judge and I have the most utmost respect
for our bench across the state. Each county will will
have a different outcome with regard to each one of
these cases.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Well, the music's playing, Attorney General Dave Sunday, so we
got to go. But thank you for coming on the show,
and thank you for fighting the good fight. God bless
and take care you too.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Have a wonderful day.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
Thank you. It's seven fifty six. The news is next.
Hang tight,