DEADLY CONCERNS
Leach: Panel’s findings back push to outlaw Pa. death penalty Philly cop killers cut deal for life in prison; victim’s kin outraged
“I have long felt that it is time for the United States to join the rest of the civilized world in ending the barbaric practice of having our government kill people in cold blood.” — Senator Daylin Leach, D-17 of Lower Merion
A long-awaited Joint State Government Commission report on the death penalty in Pennsylvania suggests making numerous changes to the way the state carries out capital punishment.
The 270-page report, authorized by a 2011 Senate resolution, focuses on 17 subjects related to the death penalty, including cost, bias, proportionality, mental health, impact on victim families, alternatives and public opinion.
Among the key findings in the report published Monday by the bipartisan Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment is that a majority of Pennsylvanians are in favor of the death penalty.
The report also found that support is declining overall, however, and drops in polling when an alternative such as life without the possibility of parole is offered.
“Because the severely punitive alternative of life imprisonment without parole is available, the subcommittee on policy concludes that an alternative to the
death penalty exists that would sufficiently ensure public safety and address other legitimate social and penological interests,” one section of the report reads.
The report additionally suggests setting up a publicly funded agency to provide legal representation in capital cases, which could save money for counties and lead to fewer reversals on appeal.
Another finding indicates that “the only certain way to eliminate the risk of condemning and executing a factually innocent person would be to eliminate the sentence and not execute any convict.”
The report could not determine whether procedural protections are adequate to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities are not being sentenced to death, but did find the number of inmates on death row with IQ low enough to be diagnosed “intellectually disabled” is comparable to those serving life sentences – both of which are about two to three times that of the general population.
The report recommends adopting a version of “guilty but mentally ill” for the death penalty, so that severely mentally ill murderers are punished the same way that intellectually dis-
abled murderers are.
“The report concludes that our death penalty system is very expensive and lacks a way to ensure that innocent people will not be executed,” said state Senator Daylin Leach, D-17 of Lower Merion, in a release. “Further, too many people on death row are economically or intellectually disadvantaged. And finally, there is no substantial evidence that capital punishment actually deters violent crime.”
Leach, a task force member, has introduced a bill in five consecutive sessions to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania. His most recent, Senate Bill 703, is awaiting a Judiciary Committee vote.
“I have long felt that it is time for the United States to join the rest of the civilized world in ending the barbaric practice of having our government kill people in cold blood,” Leach said. “We owe it to Pennsylvanians to stop using their tax dollars to, in the words of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, tinker with the machinery of death.”
Pennsylvania is one of 31 states with a death penalty law, though it has not carried out an involuntary execution since 1962. It has only had three voluntary executions carried out since the death penalty was reinstated in 1972 – the last putting an end to serial rapist and murderer Gary Heidnik in 1999.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf instituted a moratorium on executions in 2015 pending the completion of the report. Wolf spokesman J.J. Abbot said Monday that the governor would review the report and its recommendations.
Pennsylvania’s Corrections Department held 149 men on death row at the start of June, down from 186 at the time Wolf imposed the moratorium. The average death row inmate has been there for 17 years. About three dozen inmates have died while incarcerated on Pennsylvania’s death row in the past 30 years.
The commissions’ report comes on the heels of two men pleading guilty to the 2015 shooting death of Philadelphia police Sgt. Robert Wilson III in exchange for taking capital punishment off the table.
Brothers Carlton Hipps and Ramone Williams would instead serve life plus 50 to 100 years in prison and waive any appeals. Several of Wilson’s family members were expected to testify against the deal Monday.
New Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner promised during his campaign not to seek capital punishment in any case.