Stoneleigh Fellow Jennifer Merrigan and her colleagues at Phillips Black have released brand-new empirical data illustrating how Finley “no-merit” letters undermine legal ethics and judicial process in high-stakes criminal cases.
Finley “no-merit” letters are a feature of Pennsylvania’s post-conviction review system. Filed pursuant to Commonwealth v. Finley, they are a mechanism under which a lawyer appointed to represent a petitioner in post-conviction proceedings may move to withdraw from the representation by arguing that all their client’s claims lack merit in a publicly filed “no-merit” letter.
Though Finley letters are routinely filed by post-conviction lawyers in Pennsylvania, even in serious cases where clients are serving severe sentences, little has been done to assess their empirical scope or understand their systemic impact. Those kinds of queries are warranted. Pennsylvania leads the country in sentences of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). And Philadelphia has sentenced more individuals to die in prison than any county in the country — 84% are Black, and 50% were under the age of 25 at the time of the offense.
