Ending “Death by Incarceration”
In early October, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear arguments in an important case that could have national implications. The case seeks to end mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole—what many refer to as “death by incarceration”—for felony murder.
The plaintiff in the case is Derek Lee, who is serving a life sentence without parole for a felony murder conviction. Except Lee never killed anyone, nor intended to kill. Pennsylvania has mandatory life without parole sentencing for people involved in felony murders, whether or not they are directly culpable—a practice that disproportionately impacts Black Americans. Pardiss Kebriaei, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about Lee’s case and its national implications.
Sonali Kolhatkar
joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.
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