Session: 2023-2024
ACLU-PA Position: Supports
HR 269 (PN 2882) would direct the Joint State Government Commission to establish a bipartisan task force to study the Pennsylvania crimes code, with specific attention paid to analyzing overlapping and duplicative offenses, inconsistent offense grading, and gaps in criminal liability. The task force would have two years to complete its assessment and to provide recommendations to remedy issues identified in its final report.
Over the last three sessions, the ACLU-PA has included a similar recommendation to the legislature in each of our More Law, Less Justice reports. PA's criminal code has offenses scattered all over the consolidated and unconsolidated statutes, is riddled with duplicative crimes, and plagued by ad hoc, inconsistent grading that undermines any standard of proportional punishment. HR 269 would provide a desperately needed—and long overdue—comprehensive assessment of Pennsylvania's criminal law.
Check the resolution's status here.
