Sites of Resistance^*

Abolitionist Law Center

The Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) is a public interest law firm and community organizing project that challenges the criminal punishment system in Pennsylvania and fights on behalf of people whose human rights are violated in prison.

ALC has challenged felony murder in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and has built public awareness of the need to end death by incarceration. In 2020, ALC launched its c4 arm Straight Ahead, a legislative organizing project. Straight Ahead organizes and advocates for legislation that would allow the possibility of parole for over 5,000 people currently serving death by incarceration for first and second-degree convictions. Additionally, a stand-alone bill on second-degree murder (felony murder) would give parole eligibility to over 1,000 people serving second-degree sentences.

Amistad Law Project

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Amistad Law Project is organizing to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania. Through strategic campaigns and legal advocacy, they advance healing justice for communities harmed by the criminal legal system, social inequality, and violence. Amistad promotes practical abolition rooted in a Black feminist vision of collective care. This means they fight to abolish death by incarceration, win second chances for people with extreme sentences, and create alternatives to the police, like mobile crisis teams. They believe public safety starts with social equality and work to build a future where all communities have the material resources they need to thrive.

Amistad has played a leading role in creating and promoting legislation that would end Death By Incarceration (also known as life without parole) for people convicted of felony murder in Pennsylvania. They have also produced creative media about the fight for second chances for people in PA prisons. No Way Home is a short documentary about a mother’s struggle to reunite her family, and We’re Still Here is a multimedia project featuring stories from folks fighting for their lives amidst Death by Incarceration sentences in Pennsylvania.

California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners

The California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners (CCWP) is a grassroots abolitionist organization—with members inside and outside prison—that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex.

As part of the Drop LWOP Coalition, CCWP supports commutations for all those sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) and is pushing legislation to chip away at LWOP sentences—including those imposed through California’s Special Circumstances law. CCWP aims to help those currently incarcerated and those who are pretrial but facing charges that could result in LWOP sentences.

Campaign to End Life Without Parole

The Campaign to End Life Without Parole (CELWOP) mobilizes broad-based support for the abolition of life without parole sentences in Massachusetts.  The campaign is led by formerly incarcerated people and the loved ones of those serving life without parole sentences. 

CELWOP aims to end life without parole through legislation, direct action, and educational events for community members both inside and outside prison.

CUNY Law School Second Look Project: Beyond Guilt

The Second Look Project works to end mass incarceration one person at a time by focusing on extricating people serving life or long-term sentences. 

We work on behalf of the over-punished—those facing the reality of death by incarceration—many of whom have been sentenced pursuant to felony murder laws. The Project has helped bring home more than 50 people sentenced to life in prison.

FAMM

FAMM is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocates sentencing policies that are individualized and fair, protect public safety, and preserve families. FAMM’s Second Chances Agenda aims to create as many mechanisms as possible to give people second chances, reunite families, and reduce mass incarceration. This includes passing “second look” laws, and expanding compassionate release and clemency.

This work includes eliminating mandatory sentencing schemes, including those for felony murder, and providing second look opportunities for those serving extreme and life sentences for felony murder.

Felony Murder Elimination Project (FMEP)

Felony Murder Elimination Project informs the public about the devastating effects of felony murder and aims to reform California's current felony murder law. FMEP also supports national efforts to end extreme sentencing.

FMEP’s work has included legislative advocacy, hosting statewide convenings, coalition-building, and engaging in research partnerships with universities.

Felony Murder Law Reform #FMLR

Felony Murder Law Reform Minnesota (#FMLR) was birthed out of several families who experienced the horror of our loved ones facing first degree murder charges under felony murder laws. FMLR aims to end felony murder and the expansive use of aiding and abetting charges in Minnesota.

In 2023, FMLR successfully advocated to reform Minnesota’s felony murder law. The legislative change reduced the circumstances where a person can be convicted of felony murder if they did not kill anyone. The law was applied retroactively, and includes those charged with first or second degree felony murder under the theory of aiding and abetting and crimes of another.  It also includes a commutation provision for people who were charged with felony murder under a theory of aiding and abetting but ultimately accepted plea deals to second-degree intentional murder.

Free Hearts

Free Hearts is an organization led by formerly incarcerated women that provides support, education, and advocacy in organizing families impacted by incarceration, with the ultimate goals of reuniting families and keeping families together.

Free Hearts has seen the harm that felony murder laws cause families and communities, and advocates to change these laws. Their advocacy work includes community organizing, legislative advocacy, participatory defense, and research partnerships.

Illinois Prison Project

Illinois Prison Project uses direct representation, education, and advocacy & policy to fight for a more humane system. 

We provide direct representation in state clemency proceedings to people who are currently incarcerated for felony murder convictions in Illinois. Our legislative arm, the Illinois Prison Project Action Fund, is working to reform Illinois’s felony murder law.

Justice for LaKeith Smith Coalition

The Justice for Lakeith Smith Coalition advocates on behalf of Lakeith Smith, who was convicted of felony murder at the age of 15 and is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence. LaKeith’s 16-year-old friend, A’Donte, was shot and killed by a police officer while LaKeith and A’Donte were involved in a burglary of an occupied home. Under the felony murder rule, LaKeith was held responsible for the death of his friend.

Justice for LaKeith Smith urges felony murder reform in Alabama. One proposed bill, HB 382, would eliminate felony murder charges for deaths caused by third-parties, narrow the list of felonies that trigger a felony murder charge, and reduce the class of felony murder offenses. 

Ohio Justice and Policy Center

The Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC) aims to create fair, intelligent, redemptive criminal-justice systems through zealous client-centered advocacy, innovative policy reform, and cross-sector community education.

OJPC’s Beyond Guilt project focuses specifically on Ohio prisoners who have been unfairly sentenced, including people serving life sentences for felony murder. The project provides individual representation by exploring a range of avenues to seek sentence reductions through the courts.

Restore Justice

Restore Justice works to make Illinois a safer and more compassionate state by replacing the ineffective, extreme sentencing policies of the past with evidence-based laws that allow families and communities to heal. We create and support policies that allow those who are rehabilitated to go home, and that ensure those incarcerated, their families, and victim families have opportunities for healing and justice. 

Because Illinois’ felony-murder law disproportionately impacts young people and leads to long prison terms, we have worked to amend it. In 2021, we helped ensure passage of Public Act 101-0652. This law reduced the scope of Illinois’ felony-murder law, ensuring people could not be charged with murder when deaths were caused by third parties. 

Spero Justice Center

Colorado

Spero Justice Center’s mission is to eradicate unjust and extreme sentencing practices in Colorado. Spero Justice Center advocates against extreme sentences through direct representation, fighting for decarcerative policies, and changing false, dehumanizing narratives about those who are incarcerated.  

In 2023, Spero Justice Center led an amicus campaign calling on the Colorado Supreme Court to find the sentence of life without parole for felony murder unconstitutional. In addition, the organization seeks sentence reductions on behalf of individuals serving life without parole for felony murder convictions.

The Harriet Tubman Project

Rickey “Fuquan” McGee founded the Harriet Tubman Project in 2021 at the MCI Norfolk Correctional Facility. The organization's goal is to dismantle structural racism starting by abolishing the mental slavery that exists within institutions and by educating participants on their legal and moral obligations to participate in their own fight for freedom. 

The Harriet Tubman Project supports ending life-without-parole sentencing in Massachusetts, including under Massachusetts’s joint venture (accomplice liability) law. The project also calls for a civil rights investigation into misconduct committed by law enforcement and prosecutors in Suffolk County.

The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls

Roxbury, MA

The National Council is an abolitionist organization that aims to end the incarceration of women and girls using a holistic approach. Our work has directly led to the release of a number of women from prison and prevent the incarceration of others through legislative initiatives. Our advocacy is starting to shift public opinion away from prisons and incarceration and into our work to reimagine our communities. 

We support the elimination of felony murder laws as part of our broader mission. We educate the public about the injustice of conspiracy and felony murder and champion victims of these laws in our clemency and compassionate release work.

The Sentencing Project

Washington, D.C. | National

The Sentencing Project advocates for effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice. 

The Sentencing Project’s work on felony murder laws includes its regularly cited report, Felony Murder: an On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing, coauthored with Fair and Just Prosecution. Additionally, The Sentencing Project engages in public education, litigation, and legislative advocacy to change felony murder laws and other forms of extreme sentencing. Geographic focus areas include Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The Sentencing Project’s Second Look Network is a coalition of attorneys and mitigation specialists who provide direct representation at court resentencing hearings and parole hearings on behalf of incarcerated persons, who are serving lengthy sentences.

We Are Joint Venture

We Are Joint Venture is a collaborative movement that was founded by a group of incarcerated organizers at MCI Norfolk.  The group aims to end life-without-parole sentences for those convicted under a theory of joint venture in Massachusetts.

We Are Joint Venture’s advocacy work focuses on education, legislation, and coalition-building. In 2023, the group focused its efforts on supporting a bill proposed in the state legislature, H.45 An Act to Provide Sentencing Parity in Criminal Law.