State Sen. Daylin Leach is working on legislation that would remove the felony murder rule from Pennsylvania’s definition of second degree murder.

Related: Supreme Court ruling could mean new sentencing hearings for 13 convicted of murder in Lancaster County

People convicted of second degree murder in Pennsylvania face a mandatory life sentence.

“The focus is on eliminating the idea of strict liability for murder when committing another felony, regardless of your role in that murder,” Daylin told LancasterOnline.

In a press release announcing his proposal, the Democratic lawmaker said people should be punished for crimes “they commit or intend to commit in a way commensurate with the crimes.”

He said the felony murder statute violates that principle because people receive life sentences even though they did not kill or intend to kill anyone.

Senator @daylinleach: PA's 2nd degree murder statute is unjust and wastes taxpayer dollars. Let's eliminate it. https://t.co/AWk35hZwKp — Steve Hoenstine (@stevehoenstine) January 21, 2016

In June 2015, the Pennsylvania Superior Court denied a Maryland man’s appeal of a life sentence he received in 1990 on two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Horace and Mary Swarr more than a decade earlier.

George Burkhardt was convicted of conspiring with three other men to tie up and rob the Swarrs in their Lancaster city home in 1979.

According to newspaper records, the Swarrs were bound and gagged during the robbery and were not discovered until a week later. They died of starvation and dehydration.

Two of the other men convicted in the robbery also were sentenced to life. The fourth man cooperated with police and served a lesser sentence.

Leach said there are about 400 inmates in Pennsylvania serving life sentences for second degree murder that were not the people who committed the actual murder.

“Such an unjustified punishment undermines the effectiveness of our justice system and the public’s faith in it,” he said.

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“Nationwide, there have been 80 people who have been sentenced to death under felony murder who never committed a murder at all,” he told LancasterOnline. “And often the people who are convicted of felony murder are punished more severely than the people who actually (committed) the murder.”

He said the person who commits murder usually tries to work out a plea deal, while the person who doesn’t commit the murder is more likely to go to trial where, if found guilty, they face the mandatory life sentence.

“The felony murder statute has resulted in unjust and even absurd results." - @daylinleach — Christopher Moraff (@cmoraff) January 21, 2016

He added the penalty is “enormously costly” to taxpayers.

“It’s about $44,000 a year that we spend to incarcerate somebody, and people who should be incarcerated sometimes for short periods of time are sentenced to prison for life,” he said.

“Over the course of 30 years you spend $1.5 million per prisoner just in the cost of incarcerating them, forgetting the additional societal costs of them not being able to support a family or whatever else it may be,” he said. “So the savings would be significant.”

Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman responded to LancasterOnline’s request for a comment about Leach’s proposal in an email:

“This is a very solemn topic and should not be over-simplified and subject to grandstanding. Sometimes, the person who pulls the trigger isn’t the one who planned the crime; a non-shooter accomplice can be the ring leader and in many ways more culpable.

“I welcome discussion on the issue, but it has to be done on an accurate foundation and with an open discussion based on real-world experience — without forgetting the victims who no longer have a voice in the process.

“Discussion about changing second-degree murder should also include adding drug-dealing as a predicate felony. So many of our shootings are drug-related. Drug deals are inherently dangerous. When someone is killed as part of a drug deal, everyone should be subject to some form of felony murder and/or third-degree murder charge.

In a memo to his fellow senate members, Leach said his bill would continue to permit the punishment of any defendant for any other crime they commit or intend to commit.

Leach said he is talking with Republican state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf about scheduling a hearing for his legislation before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

However, because of Pennsylvania's budget crisis, "It's difficult to get anything moving other than budget-related things," Leach said.

Should the felony murder rule be removed from Pennsylvania’s second degree murder statute? Take our poll.