In a long and emotional session Saturday, the Maryland House of Delegates advanced a bill giving more incarcerated people a chance to petition for shorter sentences.

The Second Look Act would allow certain people who have been incarcerated for at least 20 years to ask a judge to review their sentences. Proponents argue that individuals who have behaved well in prison and sought to improve themselves deserve another opportunity.

“They have the opportunity to go before a judge … and say: I acknowledge what I did. It was horrible, but here are the ways I have changed as a person,” said Del. Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore Democrat and chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill’s sponsor, Del. Cheryl Pasteur, said the legislation wouldn’t afford convicted felons an automatic “get out of jail free” card.

“This is no guarantee,” said Pasteur, a Baltimore County Democrat. “The judge can say no or do another year, whatever. This is not a given.”

But the measure faced strong opposition from Republicans, who spurred more than two hours of debate.

Republicans offered 11 amendments to the bill that were unsuccessful, each of them attempting to exclude people found guilty of certain offenses for eligibility. Among those exclusions were those convicted of murdering multiple people, murdering a law enforcement or probation officer, murdering a pregnant person, murdering a person with a disability or murdering children.

Another failed Republican amendment would have applied the Second Look Act only to new criminal cases.

Republicans argued that those convicted of the most heinous crimes shouldn’t be set free, especially when their victims and victims’ families are still suffering.

Following spirited — and at times, emotional — debate, each amendment failed. But Republicans were successful in bringing a few Democrats along with them on some of the votes.

At various points in the debate, lawmakers recalled some of the most serious and high-profile crimes in Maryland in recent years, such as the 2023 mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes community that left two people dead, a young pregnant woman in Prince George’s County who was fatally shot in 2021, and a Baltimore man who pleaded guilty to torturing and setting people on fire and the killing of a promising tech entrepreneur in 2023.

“We’re better than this,” an emotional Del. Jesse Pippy said, pushing an amendment to exempt those convicted of killing children younger than 6.

Pippy, a Frederick County Republican, pleaded with colleagues to add the exemption for child murderers to the bill.

“This is the exception to take. Kids. Tiny, helpless kids that rely on us to protect them,” he said. As with the other amendments, it failed.

Following the debate, lawmakers advanced the Second Look Act for a final vote Monday. If approved by the House, it would move to the state Senate for consideration. Last year, a similar bill was approved by the Senate but fell short in the House.

The House of Delegates spent more than nine hours in and out of voting sessions in Annapolis on Saturday ahead of a key procedural deadline known as “crossover” on Monday. Bills must pass either the House or Senate by the end of the day Monday in order to cross to the other chamber and be guaranteed consideration.