You’ll recall that PLSE was honored in February with a Greater Philadelphia Innovation Award – not for our legal work, but for re-casting pardons as a community development strategy. We were invited to submit a paper about it, and it was published in the Social Innovations Journal in the edition devoted to Social Mobility, Income Inequality, and Institutionalized Racism. “It's time to focus on financial stability, not moral redemption,” argues the piece. Read it here. 

Widely known as “tough but fair”, the Honorable Karen Yvette Simmons has been a Judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court since January 2006, and has heard thousands of criminal cases in her three terms on the bench. She began her legal career as a Public Defender, was an Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia in the areas of labor and employment law, and was Chief Legal Counsel to the Philadelphia Police Department and Police Commissioners. She joined the PLSE Board in October 2018, was elected its Vice Chair in June 2019, and, just this month, was elected Chair. “You’re asking me to fill enormously large shoes!” she said, “but I am greatly honored to help lead this organization, at a time when its work could not be more important, not just for our clients for whom it is life-changing, but for our society as a whole, as we struggle to find common ground and racial justice in the aftermath of mass incarceration.” She replaces Ryan Allen Hancock, one of PLSE’s founders, who has served as Chair of the Board through what anyone would agree was an amazing decade of service to Philadelphia.

The Doris May Harris Image Award recognizes an African American woman attorney who best personifies the ideals Judge Harris represented – a deep commitment to mentorship, a motivating force in community outreach, and professional excellence and integrity. On June 17, the National Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Division, Philadelphia Chapter, presented the Award to Judge Simmons “for your legacy of professional excellence and commitment to the African American legal community.”  This past December, the Judge was also honored for exemplary public service by Philadelphia’s Public Interest community with the Louis H. Pollak Award.

Anyone who has lived in Philadelphia over the past few decades knows Renee Chenault Fattah – one of Philadelphia’s best-known broadcast journalists, news anchor for NBC10 for 25 years. But few know that she is an attorney: a graduate of Penn Law, she worked at Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York City, then clerked for Judge Damon Keith on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, before turning to journalism. After two years on PLSE’s Board, she joined the staff as Deputy Director on June 1, with the intention that she become Executive Director in September. Click here for the full press release.

“I am thrilled to be serving PLSE in this new role,” she said. “As a Black woman, it is especially gratifying to help lead an organization that is at the forefront of addressing the structural racism that keeps so many black and brown people who have served their time and deserve a second chance from achieving their social, economic and human potentials.”  

And we are thrilled to have you on the Team. Welcome Renee! 

Renee took virtually NO time to start connecting with those who are at the forefront of social justice. Invited by the Transition Network/Philadelphia Giving Circle, Renee interviewed Sister Mary Scullion, Co-founder of Project Home, for a special program, “Poverty and Homelessness in America – Philadelphia, a case story.” Together they explored the history of homelessness in Philadelphia, its intersection with race and poverty, and how we can bring about change that allows each of us to reach our potential. “Just as homelessness is the result of poverty, criminal records serve to keep people poor,” she said. The conversation with Sister Mary, who has been acclaimed nationwide for her advocacy on behalf of the homeless and marginalized, was part of The Giving Circle’s initiative that provides support for non-profits. One of its most recent beneficiaries is Why Not Prosper - the non-profit for returning women founded by one of PLSE’s newest Board Members, Rev. Michelle Simmons (see story next month).

It capped a year and a half’s effort, funded entirely by The Heinz Endowments: a virtual town hall that brought together leaders of Pennsylvania’s executive, judicial and legislative branches to discuss the sentence of life without parole (LWOP) as it is imposed on everyone convicted in Pennsylvania of second-degree murder, regardless if they played any role at all in the loss of life.

The Town Hall was filled with praise for our work, insights about the many issues, and optimism that PLSE’s report could be just what is needed to repeal the mandatory sentencing law, which is on the books of only one other state (Louisiana).

“One of the things your report reveals so clearly is that the time to fix this problem is now,” said Representative Leader Joanna McClinton, the House Democratic Leader. “Imposing life sentences on teenagers without the chance of rehabilitation costs them their lives while passing unnecessary costs down to taxpayers – all while ravaging the lives of their families, especially families in communities of color.” Leader McClinton continued: “We know we have work to do.”

PLSE’s work on LWOP attracted the attention of scores of people and dozens of organizations across the country, but one of the real gifts of the Town Hall was that it connected us with someone very special:

 

“My name is Nancy Leichter,” she wrote in her email, “and I am the daughter of the victim in the carjack robbery death in 1980 that put Reid and Wyatt Evans in prison with sentences of life without parole....

“I was on the Zoom call today on sentencing reform for 2nd degree Felony murder and am in complete agreement with it. I'd very much like to be involved in helping to change the 2nd degree felony murder law, ... and because I have a unique perspective on this as the daughter of the man who died as a result of the Evans brothers’ bad judgement when they were teenagers, I am hoping I might be useful in PLSE's efforts....

Your presentation was great. I'm thrilled this effort is happening...”

Thank you, Nancy. It will be thanks to people like you, joining with people like Lt. Governor Fetterman and Leader McClinton, that there is now the opportunity to change this terrible law.