Seven years in development, Pennsylvania task force issues huge report on state's (dormant) capital punishment system
As reported in this local press article from Pennsylvania, a "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." Here is more:
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 149 men and only three people have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s. 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."...
But the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association President John Adams' initial reaction to the report suggested it was not an objective look at the issue and fails to give proper consideration of victims of the crimes that result in death sentences as well as supporting data that suggests capital punishment is not disproportionately targeted against minorities.
The full massive report is available at this link, and it would likely take me the rest of the day just to fully and fairly consume the reports executive summary (which itself runs 30+ pages). For students of the modern administration of the death penalty, I see a lot of interesting and important work within this report. But, as the quotes in the press article reveal, I doubt this massive undertaking is going to change many (or any) personal or political perspectives on the application of the ultimate punishment in Pennsylvania.
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