Increasing penalty for murder in second degree

West Virginia Senate Bill 551 amends the state's second-degree murder penalty by increasing the minimum prison sentence from 10 to 15 years and changing the maximum to "life imprisonment" instead of 40 years. It also requires individuals convicted under this law to serve at least 15 years before becoming eligible for parole, raising the prior minimum from 10 years. The bill directly affects people convicted of second-degree murder in West Virginia, altering both their potential sentence length and parole eligibility. This change applies to all current and future second-degree murder convictions under the state's criminal code.