Gov. Tom Wolf has appointed Professor Rachel López to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing.

The commission was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1978 and charged with creating and maintaining a consistent and rational sentencing policy by adopting guidelines that promote fairer and more uniform sentencing throughout the Commonwealth.  Since 2008, the 11-member commission has also been tasked with developing re-sentencing guidelines, state and county parole and state recommitment ranges to enhance accountability and transparency and more closely align state and county parole procedures. 

López is the only law professor on the commission, which also comprises state judges, members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate, a district attorney and a defense attorney.

The director of the law school’s Community Lawyering Clinic, López has worked on cases involving prisoners’ rights, civil rights, human rights and the death penalty.