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Thread: Pennsylvania Capital Punishment News

  1. #81
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Philadelphia DA nominee would stop seeking death penalty

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A civil rights lawyer poised to become the next Philadelphia District Attorney says he would immediately stop seeking the death penalty and prioritize education, drug treatment and job training.

    Larry Krasner’s background as a defense lawyer and left-leaning policy positions worry some police officers and prosecutors in the wake of his Democratic primary victory Tuesday.

    The vast majority of city voters are Democrats, making him the favorite in the fall election.

    City police union president John McNesby criticized a handful of Krasner supporters making anti-police comments on election night.

    Krasner says he has spoken with Police Commissioner Richard Ross and is confident they can work together.

    Krasner says he would recruit top legal minds from around the country to join the 600-person office.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...eking-death-p/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #82
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    What will happen to Pennsylvania's death penalty?

    By Sarah Mearhoff
    The Philadelphia Inquirer

    HARRISBURG — Five times a year, Pennsylvania corrections officials meet inside a white block masonry field house on the grounds of the prison near Penn State, and carry out a mock execution.

    They escort the “inmate” to the execution chamber. They strap that person onto the gurney. And then they simulate injecting a lethal dose of drugs into his body.

    They perform this drill even though capital punishment in the commonwealth remains indefinitely on hold while government officials await a report, now years in the making, analyzing capital punishment’s history, effectiveness and cost in Pennsylvania.

    The death sentence imposed last month on Eric Frein, the Poconos survivalist who killed a State Police trooper and injured another in September 2014, has reignited questions – and in some cases, criticism – about why the state has taken so long to decide whether to continue or stop, once and for all, executing criminals.

    Troopers say Gov. Wolf should sign Frein’s death warrant.

    “For us, it’s all about justice,” said Joe Kovel, president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association. “It’s time for the moratorium to be lifted.”

    And state Sen. Scott Wagner, a York County Republican hoping to unseat the governor next year, has signaled it’s an issue he’ll press on the campaign trail. “I can assure you, when I’m governor, within the first 48 hours, I’ll be up there reversing that moratorium,” Wagner said in an interview Friday.

    Pennsylvania isn’t the only state in limbo over the death penalty, as debate has raged over the probability of an innocent person being executed and the propriety of lethal injection as an execution method. Capital punishment is authorized in 31 states, but only seven have carried out executions — 31 of them — since the start of 2016, according to Amber Widgery, a capital punishment policy specialists at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    “There are people in the world who think that no one innocent has ever been executed, and others who think it happens all the time,” Widgery said. There are also some who don’t believe you have to constitutionally execute a criminal painlessly, she said, and others who classify lethal injection as cruel and unusual.

    In Pennsylvania, those and other concerns led Wolf, a Democrat, to impose a moratorium on the death penalty after taking office in early 2015. He argued the state should await the results of a long-awaited report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment before putting any more criminals to death.

    The report is expected to analyze more than a dozen factors involving the death penalty, such as cost, bias and effectiveness.

    Wolf’s decision has drawn backlash from organizations like the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, which in 2015 called it “a misuse of [the governor’s] power” that ignores the law.

    The study itself has also come under fire, particularly for how long it’s taking to complete: It was ordered up by the state Senate in 2011 and was supposed to be completed by 2013.

    “Based on the makeup of the group and how it’s operating to date, we have serious concerns about the product that’s going to be produced and it’s very likely that it’s going to be anti-death penalty,” said Richard Long, executive director of the prosecutors’ group.

    Those involved in the study defend their work.

    The initial research, conducted by Penn State’s Justice Center for Research, took years because the researchers had to physically travel to county courts and district attorneys’ and public defenders’ offices to access documents, said the center’s Managing Director, Gary Zajac.

    The process of obtaining this data was a “long nightmare,” Zajac said, requiring permission to access the information then “weeding through…irregularly organized files.”

    “It’s a wonder we got done at all, but we did,” he said in an email.

    The Justice Center’s report awaits a final peer review before it is complete. A scholar who had been scheduled to perform that task died, causing further delay.

    “The report is almost like it’s been cursed from the beginning,” said Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission, which is tasked with producing it then sending it to legislators for consideration.

    Meanwhile, tax dollars still go toward keeping prisoners on death row.

    Each of the state’s 165 death row inmates — from Frein, who was sentenced last month, to Henry Fahy, who has been awaiting his punishment since November 1983 — cost Pennsylvania $10,000 more a year to house than a convict sentenced to life in prison. This does not account for the additional legal fees associated with capital cases: Some estimate prosecuting and litigating a capital murder case can cost up to $3 million more than a non-capital murder case.

    The state is also paying to maintain the long-dormant execution facility on the grounds of State Correctional Institution Rockview. The last time it was used was in 1999, when Philadelphia “House of Horrors” murderer Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection.

    “We have spent billions of dollars having a death penalty – including maintaining a death facility – and we have not executed someone who did not ask to be executed” since 1962, Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat and one of four members of a Senate task force awaiting the report, said last week.

    Leach is an unapologetic opponent of the death penalty. He has introduced bills to abolish it since 2009, arguing that it is “immoral and barbaric,” and calling the cost of capital punishment “troubling” – including the cost of maintaining the execution complex.

    The “death house,” as the chamber at the Rockview prison is sometimes called, requires tax dollars to be heated, lit and maintained. “It’s literally something we are getting zero out of,” Leach said.

    The Department of Corrections was unable to provide information about the costs of maintaining the execution complex. But officials there say it has to be maintained in case an execution is suddenly scheduled.

    Corrections officials declined requests to inspect or photograph the inside of the chamber, citing security reasons. They say it contains three cinderblock holding cells, where inmates are expected to spend their final hours. Approximately 20 feet away, in the execution chamber, a window peers through to a witness room, where media, citizens and victims can watch executions from rows of metal folding chairs.The field house has upstairs offices, currently unused, and an adjacent building with a kitchen to prepare an inmate’s final meal.

    But that hasn’t been necessary since 1999.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/po...-20170527.html

  3. #83
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    Pennsylvania prosecutors see positive in death penalty study

    By MARK SCOLFORO
    The Associated Press

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — The association of Pennsylvania prosecutors said Monday it sees some positives in a new report that found death sentences are more common when the victim is white and less common when the victim is black.

    The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association released a statement noting researchers found the death penalty is not disproportionately targeted against black or Hispanic defendants, a conclusion prosecutors described as a vindication of their evenhandedness in applying it.

    “For so long, those who have sought to abolish the death penalty have argued that the race of the defendant plays the critical role in decisions about who gets the death penalty,” said Berks County District Attorney John Adams, president of the prosecutors’ group. “This report squarely debunks that theory.”

    Penn State professor Jeff Ulmer, one of the lead researchers, said the prosecutors are “factually accurate” concerning the 197-page study’s finding regarding the races of defendants, but he said the report did not delve into whatever role race may play in decisions to arrest, charge and convict people of first-degree murder.

    “We did in fact find disparities by race of victim and great differences in the prosecutorial and court decision-making between counties, along with a finding that type of defense attorney matters in some ways,” Ulmer said.

    The study found no “overall pattern of disparity” by prosecutors in seeking the death penalty against black or Hispanic defendants. It found black and Hispanic defendants who killed white victims were not more likely than a typical defendant to get a death sentence.

    The study, by Penn State’s Justice Center for Research and produced for the state’s Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness , also found the prosecution of death penalty cases varies widely among counties.

    The district attorneys’ association said that may reflect the state’s commonwealth form of government and emphasis on local decision making.

    “District attorneys have to follow the rule of law and the rules governing (the) death penalty are among the strictest,” the association said. “However, prosecutorial discretion does still have a role, and ultimately that discretion is accountable to the voters during each election.”

    The Penn State researchers found that a white victim raises the odds of a death sentence by 8 percent and a black victim lowers it by 6 percent. It drew from records over an 11-year period.

    Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty shorting after taking office in 2015, citing concerns about what he described as a “flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive.”

    There are 157 men on Pennsylvania’s death row, but only three people have been executed in the state’s recent history. All three had voluntarily relinquished their appeals.

    Wolf said his moratorium will remain until he reads the results of a Senate-commissioned study of capital punishment, a review that may include findings from the new Penn State-produced study.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-...penalty-study/

  4. #84
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Justice hits hard when cops killed

    By RICH CHOLODOFSKY AND TOM FONTAINE
    The Tribune-Review

    The same day last week that authorities caught a fugitive wanted in the shooting death of a New Kensington police officer, a Westmoreland County judge scheduled the capital trial of another alleged cop killer to begin in January.

    District Attorney John Peck has sought the death penalty in every case since he took office in 1994 involving the fatal shooting of an on-duty police officer — including against Ray Shetler Jr., accused of shooting a St. Clair Township officer in 2015.

    No decision has been made about whether to seek capital punishment for suspect Rahmael Sal Holt, 29, the man authorities tracked down Tuesday in Pittsburgh four days after the shooting and killing of New Kensington Officer Brian Shaw.

    “We will evaluate the case and determine if aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances,” Peck said, adding that a decision could come early next year.

    Holt is the 13th person since 2000 to be accused of committing a violent crime that took the life of a Western Pennsylvania law-enforcement officer.

    Seven of the 13 have been convicted and sentenced to prison.

    Three received life sentences and one got the death penalty.

    Three others committed suicide after allegedly committing violent crimes, one was shot to death by police and two are awaiting trial, including Holt.

    Holt, 29, is charged with first-degree murder and weapons offenses in connection with Shaw's death.

    Authorities said Holt shot Shaw multiple times the night of Nov. 17 when the officer chased him after an attempted traffic stop.

    If convicted of first-degree murder, Holt faces a sentence of at least life in prison.

    The last execution in Pennsylvania was carried out in 1999.

    Determining whether to seek the death penalty typically depends on the details of a murder, with chances increasing for more heinous crimes, said Wes Oliver, a law professor at Duquesne University. Seeking a capital murder conviction is easier when a police officer is killed, he said.

    “Prosecutors are looking at it as a special victim rather than the nature of the killing,” Oliver said. “I think a police officer evokes a special circumstance — especially when one is killed in the line of duty. Most district attorneys do a good job evaluating these cases and when there is a killing of a police officer, you have to ask that question. It's a different criteria when a police officer is involved.”

    Under state law, juries can sentence a defendant to death following a first-degree murder conviction if aggravating circumstances, or factors about the killing, outweigh mitigating circumstances, which are details about the crime and the defendant, that make it less severe.

    The killing of a police officer is an aggravated circumstance under the law, Oliver said.

    Michael Travaglia and John Lesko were sentenced to death for the 1980 killing of rookie Apollo police Officer Leonard C. Miller. A Westmoreland County jury in 1995 resentenced Lesko to death. Travaglia was resentenced following a jury trial in 2005.

    Lesko, of Pittsburgh, is still on death row. Travaglia, of Washington Township, died in prison this year.

    Attorney Jeff Miller defended Travaglia during his last round of appeals of his death sentence. Miller said he expects Peck to seek the death penalty against Shaw's suspected killer.

    “In most counties, it would not be uncommon for an individual to be charged with capital murder when there is a death of a police officer,” Miller said.

    Here is a look at Western Pennsylvania cases since 2000 involving the killing of a police officer and their dispositions or where they stand in the legal process:

    • Michael Cwiklinksi , 47, committed suicide after fatally shooting his wife and Canonsburg police Officer Scott Bashioum, 52, and wounding another borough officer on Nov. 10, 2016.

    • Raymond Shetler , 33, is scheduled to go to trial in January on charges that he fatally shot St. Clair police Officer Lloyd Reed, 54, as he responded to a domestic call at Shetler's home on Nov. 28, 2015. Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck is seeking the death penalty.

    • Clair Fink of Ligonier was sentenced in February to 12 to 30 years in prison for killing Ligonier Township police Lt. Eric Eslary, 40, in a violent drunken-driving crash. Authorities said Fink, now 34, had been driving the wrong way on Route 30 with a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit. He is at a state prison in Clearfield County.

    • Police killed Eli Franklin Myers III , 58, after a 10-hour standoff at his Rostraver home following a traffic stop along Interstate 70 in which he fatally shot part-time East Washington police Officer John David Dryer, 46, and wounded another officer. Police shot Myers when he emerged from his home with a weapon and fired a shot at officers.

    • Charlie Post , 33, of Lower Burrell, committed suicide after he fatally shot Lower Burrell police Officer Derek Kotecki, 40, on Oct. 12, 2011. Kotecki had been attempting to apprehend Post in connection with a previous shooting.

    • Michael J. Smith , 44, of Cranberry, Venango County, committed suicide after killing his wife and fatally shooting state Trooper Paul G. Richey, 40, when the officer responded to Smith's home on Jan. 13, 2010.

    • Ronald Robinson of Pittsburgh was sentenced to two life sentences for killing a Penn Hills man who owed him money for drugs and fatally shooting Penn Hills police Officer Michael Crawshaw, 32, when he sprayed the responding officer's car with rounds from an AK-47-style assault rifle on Dec. 6, 2009. Robinson, now 40, is at a state prison in Forest County.

    • Richard Poplawski of Pittsburgh received a death sentence in connection with the April 4, 2009, shooting deaths of city Officers Eric G. Kelly, Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II. Poplawski, now 31, is on death row in a state prison in Montgomery County. He received a stay of execution early this year as he sought a new attorney for an appeal.

    • Christina Korbe of Indiana Township was sentenced to 15 years, 10 months in prison for fatally shooting FBI Special Agent Samuel Hicks during a drug raid targeting Korbe's husband on Nov. 19, 2008. Korbe, now 49, is an inmate at a Danbury, Conn., federal prison.

    • Leslie Mollett of Pittsburgh was sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting state police Cpl. Joseph Pokorny in Carnegie following a car chase along the Parkway West on Dec. 12, 2005. Mollett, now 42, is an inmate at a Schuylkill County state prison.

    • Mark Leach of Cambria County was sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting state Trooper Joseph J. Sepp Jr. in Ebensberg during a DUI traffic stop on Nov. 9, 2002. Leach was 54 when he died in a Greene County state prison in 2011.

    • Jamie Brown of Aliquippa was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison after being convicted of third-degree murder in the March 15, 2001, ambush shooting death of Aliquippa police Officer James Naim. Brown, now 40, is an inmate at a Forest County state prison.

    http://triblive.com/local/valleynews...en-cops-killed

  5. #85
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Report: Larry Krasner Dismisses More than 20 Prosecutors

    By Claire Sasko
    phillymag.com

    It’s been only three days since District Attorney Larry Krasner officially stepped in to his role, but his campaign promise to radically overhaul the prosecutors’ office already appears to be in motion.

    Several news outlets are reporting that Krasner dismissed more than 20 assistant district attorneys on Friday. A source in the DA’s office has confirmed this with Philadelphia magazine.

    Workers who are being dismissed will reportedly be informed by the end of the day on Friday. The DA’s office has yet to release a statement on the rumors.

    Philly.com reports that one of the ADAs being let go is homicide prosector Andrew Notaristefano, who has been an employee in the office for more than a decade. Notaristefano told Philly.com that he was given “no explanation” for his dismissal on Friday and that he was preparing for an upcoming homicide trial when he was informed.

    Notaristefano, who received 32 murder convictions by trial in the last four years, was awarded for his work in the courtroom by the office in 2016. Philly.com reported in October that Notaristefano recently sought the death penalty—a punishment that Krasner strongly opposes—in a 40-year-old murder case. In 2002, Notaristefano was also involved in a mix-up of DNA evidence that lead to death sentence that was later invalidated. (H/T Max Marin of Philadelphia Weekly.)

    Philly.com reports that pretrial division deputy Michael Barry, a former homicide prosecutor, was also asked to resign on Friday.

    Michael Meehan, chairman of Philadelphia’s Republican Party, criticized the move: “It is unconscionable that within three days of assuming office, and in the midst of a significant increase in murders, that Krasner would begin his tenure by firing homicide prosecutors. … No consideration was given to upcoming trials and the resulting effect on victims and survivors.”

    The DA’s office employs about 600 people.

    http://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/0...ses-attorneys/

    Heavy anti-DP, Da that is getting rid of people when the homicide rate is going up.

  6. #86
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Death row Pennsylvania: Condemned men with two death sentences

    By Rick Lee
    The York Daily Record/Sunday News

    While Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on executions continues in Pennsylvania, 21 men -- each with two death sentences -- sit on death row.

    Here are those men and what they did to deserve the death penalty.

    Ralph Birdsong, born Jan. 29, 1961, went to an alleged drug house in the 5700 block of North 17th Street, Philadelphia, on July 17, 1988, rang the doorbell and was let in by a resident who had known him for years. Once inside, Birdsong shot five people, killing two. He then forced a girl out of the home and across the street where he raped and sodomized her. Along with the death penalty, Birdsong was sentenced to 52 ½ to 105 years in prison.

    Laquaille Bryant, born Nov. 16, 1981, fatally shot Chante Wright and Octavia Green on Jan. 19, 2008. Wright had been a scheduled prosecution witness in the homicide trial of Haleem Bey and had returned to Philadelphia from a federal witness relocation program hours before her death. The FBI determined there were phone calls between Bey and Bryant in the hours before the murders. Police found Wright's body on the sidewalk and Green's body in the front passenger seat of a nearby parked car. Both women had been shot multiple times in the back, and Bryant's fingerprint was found on the vehicle.

    Terry Ray Chamberlain, born April 19, 1952, killed his estranged wife, Sherri Chamberlain, and her boyfriend, Gregory Inman, in their Bradford County residence in the early morning hours of Aug. 22, 1991. Sherri Chamberlain survived long enough to call a neighbor for help and identify her killer.

    Russell Cox, born Sept. 25, 1967, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of a mother and daughter in North Philadelphia on Feb. 26, 1986. Co-defendant, Percy Lee, 17 at the time of the murders, initially was sentenced to death. He was resentenced to two consecutive life terms. Lee had lived with the woman and her children prior to being evicted. The mother had been hog-tied and stabbed 48 times in the face, neck and chest. The daughter also had been bound, raped and stabbed 53 times. Cox also was convicted of rape.

    Anthony James Dick, born Feb. 2, 1964, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for the Jan. 24, 2006 unprovoked shootings of his 19-month-old son and 4-year-old stepson in a Columbia County motel. Dick also shot his wife, who survived, and himself. Dick asked to be sentenced to death. A judge granted that request.

    Anthony James Fiebiger, born July 14, 1963, described in news coverage as a sociopath, received two death sentences for murders committed in 1982 and 1989. Fiebiger and Joseph Morton had lured a 16-year-old girl into a Mount Washington park where they beat, kicked, strangled, raped and stabbed her, sodomized her with a foreign object and buried her in a shallow grave. The body was found on May 22, 1982. Fiebiger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. Morton was sentenced to life in prison. Fiebiger also strangled his 53-year-old girlfriend on Feb. 28, 1989 and buried her body in a 55-gallon drum in Mingo Creek County Park in Washington County and poured car battery acid over the grave. Fiebiger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death.

    Ronald Gibson, born June 24, 1967, was with two other men when a patron and an off-duty police officer were killed in a Philadelphia bar on Dec. 24, 1990. A jury convicted Gibson of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.

    Junius Burno, born Oct. 13,1967, shot and killed two men in Allentown on April 13, 2003 during a botched robbery.

    Kenneth Hairston, born June 17, 1951, fatally bludgeoned his wife and autistic teenage son with a sledgehammer on June 11, 2001, two weeks before he was to stand trial for allegedly sexually assaulting another family member. Firefighters found Hairston's wife and son when they responded to smoke coming from the Pittsburgh home. Hairston was found with several self-inflicted stab wounds. A jury convicted him of both murders and sentenced him to death.

    Robert Hughes, born Dec. 30, 1968, shot two McDonald's employees once -- each in the head -- while robbing the Chester County restaurant before opening hours on Jan. 8, 1989. Two other employees on their way into the restaurant were able to avoid Hughes. One saw Hughes waving a gun at the manager, and the other saw an employee laying on the floor next to the safe signaling for him to leave. Both employees called police from a nearby store.

    Roger Judge, born Dec. 8, 1961, killed his former girlfriend, Tabatha Mitchell, 15, and Christopher Outterbridge, 18, on Wyoming Avenue near 11th Street on Sept. 14, 1984 in Philadelphia. On June 14, 1987, Judge escaped from Holmesburg Prison. A year and a day later, Canadian authorities arrested Judge in Vancouver for robbery. He served 10 years in prison in Canada before being extradited to the United States.

    Jerome Marshall, born Jan. 1, 1963, strangled Sharon Saunders, her 2-year-old daughter Karima Saunders and Myndi McKoy sometime between Jan. 19 to Jan. 25, 1983, when their bodies were discovered in a Philadelphia apartment. Marshall confessed that he became enraged when Saunders told him she was going to marry another man. According to Pennsylvania Supreme Court documents, he had sex with Sharon Saunders, and then while she slept, he put a clothes line around her neck and strangled her to death. He then went into McKoy's room to tie her up. When she awoke and began to scream, he found a knife and stabbed her in order to quiet her and tied her up. He then held her head under water in the bath tub until she no longer moved. He killed Karima, who had awoken and called for her mother, in the same way.

    Landon D. May, born July 4, 1982, along with Michael Bourgeois, tortured and killed Terry Smith, 49, and Lucy Smith, 51, in their Ephrata home on Sept. 5, 2001. The Smiths were Bourgeois' adoptive parents. The torture, according to court documents, was inflicted to obtain the Smiths' PINs for their ATM cards. May also sexually assaulted Lucy Smith. Bourgeois, 16 at the time of the murders, initially was sentenced to life without parole. He was resentenced in 2017 to 50 years to life.

    Noel Montalvo, born May 16, 1963, along with his brother, Milton Montalvo, broke into the East Philadelphia Street, York, apartment of Milton Montalvo's former girlfriend, Miriam Ascencio, 44, and killed her and her friend, Manuel Santana, 37, on April 19, 1988. In separate trials, both Montalvos were convicted and sentenced to death. Milton Montalvo's death sentences were overturned in 2017 and he awaits a resentencing hearing.

    Craig Murphy, born June 19, 1955, killed Raymond Gambrell on Jan. 22, 1981, in Philadelphia. He then killed Steven Brown, Gambrell's friend and a reluctant prosecution witness, on May 13, 1981. According Supreme Court documents, Murphy had accused Gambrell of previously breaking into his mother's house. At gunpoint, he forced Brown into a car with two of Murphy's cohorts and escorted Gambrell into an empty lot where he shot and killed him. Murphy then returned to the car and threatened Brown against talking to the police. Police later did question Brown, who implicated Murphy. Murphy was jailed on a homicide charge but was released when Brown failed to show for three scheduled preliminary hearings. Brown was killed two weeks after returning to Philadelphia.

    Michael John Parrish, born Nov. 19, 1985, was a Monroe County prison guard when he killed his girlfriend, 21-year-old Victoria Adams, and their 20-month-old son Sidney, a heart transplant recipient on July 6, 2009. Parrish, who sported several Nazi tattoos, told authorities he became enraged when Adams arrived home six hours late in the company of three men. Parrish shot Adams and the child multiple times.

    Samuel B. Randolph, born Nov. 25, 1971, killed Thomas Easter and Anthony Burton on Sept. 19, 2011, outside a Harrisburg bar following an altercation 18 days earlier at another Harrisburg bar. Randolph executed three drive-by shootings in the intervening days, wounding several people before committing the murders.

    Albert E. Reid, born Nov. 14, 1948, shot and killed his estranged wife, Carla Reid, and her 14-year-old daughter, Deidra Moore, in their beds in Hamilton Township, Franklin County on Dec. 27, 1996. Reid had been accused of sexually assaulting the teen.

    Anthony Reid, born Nov. 1, 1967, a hit man for the Junior Black Mafia, was convicted and sentenced to death separately for the fatal shootings of Mark Lisby, 25, on July 11, 1988, and Neil Wilkinson, 18, on March 13, 1989, in Philadelphia. Lisby was killed over a $150 drug debt. Wilkinson was a fellow member of the Junior Black Mafia. Six days before Wilkinson's murder, Reid shot and killed 16-year-old Michael Waters, who had been among a group of youngsters who threw snowballs at Reid's car.

    Robert Wharton, born Feb. 12, 1963, killed Bradley and Fern Hart on Jan. 30, 1984. Wharton and another man had forced their way into the Harts' Philadelphia residence at knifepoint. Wharton forced Bradley Hart to write him a personal check over a disputed work matter. Both victims were then strangled.

    Raghunandan Yandamuri, born Feb. 21, 1986, killed Satyavathi Venna, 61, and her 10-month-old granddaughter on Oct. 22, 2012, in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, in a botched kidnapping-for-ransom. Saddled with heavy gambling debts, Yandamuri broke into his neighbors' apartment where he killed Venna, who tried to defend her grandchild. When the baby would not stop crying, Yandamuri suffocated the girl by stuffing a handkerchief in her mouth. The baby's body was found in a suitcase in the basement of the apartment compl

    https://www.ydr.com/story/news/2018/...ces/478580002/
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  7. #87
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    Long-awaited death penalty report released. How long will Pa.'s moratorium on executions stand?

    The long-awaited report reviewing the state's death penalty has been released that could affect the death penalty moratorium that Gov. Tom Wolf imposed shortly after taking office in 2015.

    The 270-page report, commissioned by a 2011 Senate resolution and compiled by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment along with the Justice Center for Research at The Pennsylvania State University and the Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness, evaluates the pros and cons of the state's capital punishment law.

    Specifically, it was charged with looking at the cost, bias, impact on and services for family members of death penalty inmates; mental illness, counseling, alternatives, and more.

    Work began on the study in 2012. It was to have been completed by the end of 2013. However, delays in appointing members and in information gathering as well as conflicting work schedules of task force members bogged down the process, according to Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the Joint State Government Commission, which oversaw the task force and advisory committee's work.

    Despite the report's completion, don't expect an immediate decision by Wolf on whether the moratorium will be lifted.

    He has indicated the moratorium will remain in place until the recommendations and concerns that the report raises are satisfactorily addressed, his spokesman J.J. Abbott said.

    Wolf's Republican gubernatorial opponent Scott Wagner has said he supports the death penalty and indicated in February he would pursue a mandatory death penalty for any school shooter who kills someone although legal analyst say laws like that have been ruled unconstitutional.

    Pennsylvania has a death penalty law on the books since 1978, but its death row has shrunk to 150 men and only three people have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s, according to the report. All three had voluntarily relinquished their appeals.

    The most recent execution was in 1999 when Philadelphia torture killer Gary Heidnik was put to death. The last time an inmate was executed involuntarily in Pennsylvania was 1962.

    Penn State's Justice Center for Research,, which conducted a study that was incorporated into this report, concluded death sentences are more common when the victim is white and less common when the victim is black.

    Among other findings, that study indicated prosecution of death penalty cases varies widely by county and defendants represented by public defenders were more likely to get a death sentence than those with privately retained lawyers.

    Marc Bookman, a longtime public defender and co-director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, issued an immediate reaction to the study's findings. He said the study confirms his belief that life without parole is "fairer, quicker, and more cost-efficient than capital punishment."

    He said, "Many people will conclude that having a death penalty in Pennsylvania simply doesn't make sense for moral, practical, or financial reasons. For those who still think it's worthwhile to keep it in place, the study documents the extensive work necessary to satisfy the constitutional requirements of fairness and due process, while minimizing the chances of error."

    https://www.pennlive.com/politics/in...nalty_rep.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  8. #88
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Pennsylvania's death penalty system should be strengthened, not abolished, amid newly raised concerns

    By Paul Muschick
    Allentown Morning Call

    Newly raised concerns about the fairness and cost of Pennsylvania’s capital punishment system should be heeded but they aren’t a reason to abolish the death penalty.

    Rather, state officials should take the recommendations made by a task force this week to improve the process, and then end the moratorium on executions.

    The task force said changes should be made to make sure defendants have competent attorneys and mentally ill defendants aren’t sent to death row. It said data should be collected to make sure capital punishment is applied consistently to the same types of crimes and without regard for the defendant’s or victim’s race.

    Its report also addressed the largest concern about the process, that innocent people can be condemned. It noted that 162 death row inmates nationwide have been exonerated since 1973 through subsequent court proceedings and pardons. Six were in Pennsylvania.

    That is a big problem.

    That’s why prosecutors must carefully chose death penalty cases. There must be an overwhelming amount of evidence, including multiple eyewitnesses and physical evidence, that overlaps to build an airtight case.

    Sometimes, there is no doubt that people are killers because their sins are recorded by surveillance cameras or bystanders’ phones. With that evidence, other than mental illness, there’s no reason not to execute those who commit the most horrific crimes.

    They include the brothers who gunned down Philadelphia police Officer Robert Wilson III. Instead, they were spared their lives this week, on the same day the death penalty report was released.

    Carlton Hipps, 32, and Ramone Williams, 28, pleaded guilty to killing Wilson during a robbery at a GameStop store in 2015. Wilson was inside doing a security check and buying a birthday present for his son.

    Under a plea deal, the brothers were sentenced to life in prison with no parole, plus 50 to 100 years.

    The deal wasn’t universally supported. Some of Wilson’s relatives and the police union wanted the death penalty to be pursued, according to the Associated Press.

    I’m with them.

    Wilson was outgunned when Hipps and Williams opened fire on him as they entered the store and saw him. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the evidence in the case included video from inside the store, from a nearby store and from another officer’s body camera.

    Then police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told the Inquirer the day after the shooting that Wilson’s final moments were captured in extraordinary clarity by the store’s cameras. But since not every capital case has such compelling evidence, it’s incumbent on state officials to make sure the system is fair. That’s where Monday’s report comes in.

    The Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment was established by the state Senate in 2011. Four senators, including Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, worked with attorneys, judges, prosecutors, attorneys and others to study 17 issues related to capital punishment. Their final report is 280 pages, so it’s a lot of information for the Legislature, the governor and others to digest.

    A few of the recommendations stand out and should be priorities.

    * Change court rules so a defendant’s intellectual disabilities are determined before a trial instead of afterward. That would mean the death penalty couldn’t be pursued, reducing the length of the trial and saving money.

    * Create a “guilty but mentally ill” classification for defendants who would be treated the same as “legally insane” and not face capital punishment.

    * Create a state-funded capital defender’s office to represent everyone being tried under the death penalty and anyone who appeals convictions. The task force said that would save counties money and improve the quality of representation.

    The task force also recommended the state make its lethal injection protocol public and ensure executions are done humanely. I don’t mind if a killer feels a little pain while strapped to his or her deathbed, considering the pain they inflicted on their victim.

    With the task force research pending, Gov. Tom Wolf put a halt to all executions shortly after he took office in 2015. Now that the results are in, it’s time to get to work to strengthen the system so that ban can be lifted.

    That won’t create a line at the execution chamber. The state doesn’t have a prolific history of executions. There have been three in the past 56 years, all people who waived their appeals. The last involuntary execution was in 1962, according to the task force’s report. There currently are 150 people on death row.

    While executions are rare, having the death penalty can be a bargaining chip for authorities as they investigate crimes.

    Cosmo DiNardo, who killed four young men and buried their bodies on his family’s farm in Bucks County last year, agreed to tell authorities where the fourth body was after prosecutors pledged not to seek a death sentence. Last month, he pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences.

    It’s also necessary to have capital punishment because some crimes simply are so horrific that any other punishment, including life in a cage, is insufficient.

    http://www.mcall.com/opinion/muschic...627-story.html
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  9. #89
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association blasts death penalty report

    Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams dismisses it as "the same-old anti-death penalty talking points."

    By Nicole C. Brambila
    Reading Eagle

    HARRISBURG, PA — The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association blasted a recent report on the death penalty, describing it as a long, convoluted and inconclusive bit of advocacy driven by anti-death penalty opinion.

    The district attorneys’ 29-page response also charged that the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment — comprised of representatives from both political parties, the judiciary, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, victim groups and academia — was largely made up of opponents of capital punishment.

    “The report couldn’t produce the system-wide indictment death penalty opponents wanted because the facts don’t match their narrative,” Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams, president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said in a press release Monday. “Instead, we find ourselves responding to the same-old anti-death penalty talking points.”

    State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, a Montgomery County Republican and chairman of task force charged with studying Pennsylvania’s death penalty system, has called the association’s criticism of the advisory committee a red herring.

    The association’s response also took aim at the fact the report covered very little new ground except for a Penn State study released in October.

    The Penn State report found, among other things, that the victim’s race was a factor in who receives a death sentence in Pennsylvania. The association’s response highlighted certain aspects of the report’s findings, including that prosecutors were not found to have targeted black and Latino defendants in seeking the death penalty, to describe it as vindicating prosecutors’ evenhandedness in applying capital punishment.

    While short on new findings, last week’s report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment did offer several recommendations that included reducing the number of aggravating circumstances that qualify for a capital sentence, barring its imposition on the mentally ill and creating a statewide public defender office.

    Richard Long, the DAs association’s executive director, said Monday that a statewide office wasn’t necessary because money used by the federal defenders office can be reallocated for defense. He also argued that significant protections already shield the mentally ill.

    “The public,” Long said, “can have confidence in the death penalty system in Pennsylvania.”

    Carol Lavery and Pam Grosh — both members of the advisory committee — supported its rejoinder, the DAs association noted Monday.

    In the wake of the report’s release, Greenleaf began circulating a co-sponsor memo for legislation he intends to introduce when lawmakers return to Harrisburg that will address jury makeup, reform Pennsylvania’s clemency requirements and create an additional safety net to correct legal errors.

    http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/pennsylvania-district-attorneys-association-blasts-death-penalty-report
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #90
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Pennsylvania state commission scrutinizes flaws in death penalty

    By Kristen Whitney Daniels
    National Catholic Reporter

    In late June, the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Commission on Capital Punishment issued a critical report detailing the issues surrounding capital punishment in the state. The 270-page report, released June 25, outlined numerous recommendations to address flaws the commission saw, ultimately leading the committee to call the death penalty "unnecessary."

    The report comes nearly seven years after the Pennsylvania State Senate ordered a review of the death penalty in 2011. Four years later, current Gov. Tom Wolf issued a moratorium on the death penalty until he saw the results of this commission.

    The state itself has only seen three executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, with the last one occurring in 1999. All three executed inmates, who had "psychiatric problems," according to the commission's report, waived their appeals. In that same period, six inmates were exonerated.

    As of July 2, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections lists 148 inmates sitting on death row.

    The bipartisan committee that released the report represented a wide group of experts including scholars, members of the police force, social workers, public defenders and religious leaders.

    The report also represented the many issues surrounding the death penalty. It is broken down into 17 lengthy and data-driven subsections:

    Cost;
    Bias and unfairness in capital trials;
    Proportionality regarding the nature of the crime;
    Impact on and services for family members;
    Death row inmates with intellectual disabilities;
    Death row inmates with mental illness;
    Juries;
    State appeals and post-conviction procedures;
    Clemency;
    "Penological intent such as public safety or deterrence";
    Innocence;
    Alternatives to capital punishment;
    Legal counsel for defendants;
    Secondary trauma to those involved in a death penalty case;
    Length and conditions of confinement on death row;
    Lethal injection;
    Public opinion.
    While the report itself is long, it's clear within the first 20 pages what conclusion the commission came to on the death penalty.

    "Because the severely punitive alternative of life imprisonment without parole is available, the subcommittee on policy concludes that the death penalty is unnecessary, given the many objections to its use, the number of innocent persons wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, and the effectiveness of the alternative," the commission wrote.

    Additionally, when studying whether capital punishment is in any way "unfair, arbitrary, or discriminatory," the report found evidence suggesting significant bias. The report discovered differences in sentencing based on the county where the crime occurred, the race of the victim, and the type of legal representation the defendant received.

    The report is not legally binding, and also not the first state commission to offer up similar concerns. The Pennsylvania commission offered a variety of recommendations should the state choose to continue sentencing people to death.

    One of the major suggestions was to create a "guilty but mentally ill" plea that would be determined during the pretrial stage, while also screening for intellectual disabilities. While it is unconstitutional to execute a person who is intellectually disabled or mentally ill, the report found that as many as 14 percent of inmates currently on death row would be considered intellectually disabled and a quarter of them having "an active mental disorder," with many more needing mental health treatment.

    Another major recommendation was to create a state-funded capital defenders office that would represent defendants in all phases of capital cases, including trial, appellate and state post-conviction stages. This suggestion comes after finding, "as of May 2018, 150 Pennsylvania death-row inmates … have had their convictions or sentences overturned on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. Death sentences in 93 of these cases were overturned because of counsel's failure to investigate and present mitigating evidence in the penalty phase."

    "Pennsylvania is the only state that contributes nothing for indigent defense," Matthew Mangino, a member of the task force, wrote in The Legal Intelligencer. "All public defender services are funded locally with counties carrying the full burden of indigent defense costs."

    The committee also recommended reducing the state's 18 instances of aggravating circumstances and demystifying the entire process surrounding the state's lethal injection protocol. The commission acknowledged that it couldn't be sure that the process was constitutional, as the state is allowed to conceal its lethal injection process.

    In a press release, the national network Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty said it agreed with the many recommendations put forth in the report. The group applauded the report for addressing the "many areas of concern to growing numbers of conservatives, including its high cost, unfairness, and discriminatory nature."

    "This report, like many before it in Pennsylvania and around the country, recognizes many of those problems [surrounding the death penalty]," Heather Beaudoin, national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said in the press release.

    "Anything less than a full implementation of the report's recommendations represents a willingness to carry out executions regardless the system's significant flaws and the high possibility of error."

    The release of the report comes at a pivotal time in Pennsylvania.

    On the same day the report was released, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner faced criticism after his office chose to forgo the death penalty — instead offering a plea deal of life in prison for the two men who killed Philadelphia Police Sgt. Robert Wilson III in 2015.

    In social media posts, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 accused Krasner of being unsupportive of Wilson's family. Krasner responded to the criticism by saying the family was split on the issue.

    Krasner's "never" stance on the death penalty was a large focus of his campaign to become Philadelphia's district attorney in 2017, although since being sworn in, he has walked back on some of that surety.

    In an interview following his swearing-in, Krasner reiterated his personal belief against the death penalty but acknowledged that "you never want to say never" in regards to capital punishment sentencing.

    Krasner said the decisions of the district attorney office's homicide sentencing committee, along with his decisions, "are going to be informed by the fact that the death penalty is never imposed in Pennsylvania."

    The release also comes during Wolf's re-election campaign against pro-death-penalty Republican candidate Scott Wagner, who has spoken out against Wolf's moratorium and would lift it, should he be elected in November.

    In response to the plea deal Krasner's office offered, Wagner wrote on his campaign website, "I also know that our Governor, Tom Wolf, has put a moratorium on the death penalty and opposes the death penalty for cop killers, school shooters, and drug dealers. You can be assured that his moratorium will end when I take office in January of 2019."

    https://www.ncronline.org/news/justi...-death-penalty
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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