Leonard N. Sosnov, a Widener University Delaware Law School professor and the recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Thurgood Marshall Award, assailed mandatory minimums and called for Pennsylvania to end life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in a brief acceptance speech Wednesday night.

The longtime criminal law reform advocate has spent much of his career representing poor defendants and arguing against mandatory minimums, even taking a 1986 case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he lost on a 5-4 decision. During a ceremony at the Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia, he accepted the award, which recognizes commitment to improving the standard of justice in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania courts.

In his remarks, Sosnov criticized the laws as unfair and overly harsh, and he said they take discretion away from judges in sentencing.