Roae Calls Out House Democrats for Delay Tactics, Removing Accountability for Convicted Murders

July 23, 2026

HARRISBURG — Rep. Brad Roae (R-Crawford/Erie) issued the following statement in response to the vote on House Bill 1042:

“Just the process used for House Bill 1042 justifies a ‘no’ vote. At 5:51 p.m. on Tuesday, the Democrats announced a voting session for 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 23, but did not say what bills we would be voting on. An hour before voting session was scheduled to start, the public General Assembly website did not list House Bill 1042 on the House calendar for a vote today. Members of the House Rules Committee received an amendment to the bill minutes before they had to vote on it shortly before noon. As such, all of the Republicans voted ‘no.’   

“The actual bill passed by the Senate almost two weeks ago was a commonsense solution to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that mandatory life-in-prison sentences with no parole were unconstitutional for those convicted of second-degree murder. The language as amended by the House Democrats today could result in no jail time at all for people convicted of second-degree murder. They also shoved in medical parole language that would absolutely be abused with many convicts exaggerating their medical conditions to get out of prison.    

“I voted ‘NO’ because the process and the actual bill were both bad.”

The 6th Legislative District includes the city of Meadville; Beaver, Conneaut, East Fairfield, East Fallowfield, East Mead, Fairfield, Greenwood, Hayfield, North Shenango, Pine, Randolph, Sadsbury, South Shenango, Spring, Summerhill, Summit, Union, Vernon, Wayne, West Fallowfield, West Mead and West Shenango townships; and Cochranton, Conneaut Lake, Conneautville, Linesville and Springboro boroughs in Crawford County and Conneaut, Elk Creek and Springfield townships and Albion and Cranesville boroughs in Erie County.