Pennsylvania governor's execution moratorium is challenged

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Pennsylvania governor's execution moratorium is challenged
By MARC LEVY, Associated Press | February 18, 2015 | Updated: February 18, 2015 4:00pm

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The top prosecutor in Pennsylvania's largest city filed a legal challenge Wednesday to Gov. Tom Wolf's death penalty moratorium, telling the state's highest court that the action was illegal and unconstitutional.

The challenge by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams came five days after Wolf said he would issue reprieves at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that has been studying the issue since 2011.

The case raised in Williams' filing involves Terrance Williams, who was convicted of the 1984 robbing and fatal tire-iron beating of another man in Philadelphia. His death sentence has been fought in state and federal courts.

"The governor's supposed reprieve is flagrantly unconstitutional, and should be declared by this court to be null, void, and absolutely without legal effect," the district attorney's legal challenge said.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Pennsylvania-governor-s-execution-moratorium-is-6087858.php

[longship]

1. Fine. Wolf should give clemency to all death row inmates.

I presume he has that power as governor.

You want to play games, Seth. Fine. I raise the stakes. Now what are you going to do?

[lsewpershad]

2. That would be great.

[yeoman6987]

5. What? And let them all out of prison to use the

Tire iron on an innocent person? That is not even funny. He'd be impeached so fast and ruin the Democratic Party in PA for a decade at least at the Governor level.

[happyslug]

4. Wolf, by himself does NOT have that power

Wolf can REFUSE to sign death warrants (This is what Governor Shapp did in the 1970s, Shapp also opposed the Death Penalty).

The Board of Pardons exists as a separate entity that has the authority to make recommendations to the Governor for pardons, reprieves, commutations of sentence, and executive clemency. The Governor is prohibited from bypassing normal procedure and granting clemency on the basis of special circumstances. He is authorized to grant clemency only upon a favorable recommendation by the Board of Pardons. The Governor is not bound to accept the recommendation of the Board of Pardons, but exercises an independent judgment in all cases.

http://www.bop.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/clemency/19502

i.e. the Governor can grant a pardon if the Board recommends one, but he does NOT have to, but the Governor can NOT grant a pardon unless the Board recommends pardons, reprieves, commutations of sentence, and executive clemency.

[Nobel_Twaddle_III]

6. not clemency but he could commute death sentences to life without parole.

[happyslug]

7. AS I stated above the Governor does NOT have that power in Pennsylvania.

The Governor can only reduce the sentence if recommended by the pardon board, all of whom must be approved by the PA Senate (Which is GOP Controlled). Thus what Wolf can do is limited.

[Orrex]

3. Poor Seth won't get to kill anyone for a while.

How can Wolf do this to poor Seth?

[happyslug]

8. 9 out of Allegheny County, and 65 out of Philadelphia County

http://www.cor.pa.gov/Administration/General%20Information/Documents/Death%20Penalty/Current%20Execution%20List.pdf

The population of Philadelphia county is 1.553 Million People vs 1.223 million people in Allegheny County (County Seat is Pittsburgh PA). 186 people are on Death Row for ALL of the State of Pennsylvania. i.e. over 1/3 of all people on Death Row are from Philadelphia County given 65 of those 186 are from Philadelphia.

In number of people on death row, Allegheny County, being the second most populated county in the State should be #2, but it is #4, #2 is York County with 11 people on Death Row, #3 is Berks Count with 13 people on Death row, Both beating out Allegheny County (County Seat Pittsburgh PA). .

Barely losing out to Allegheny County are Montgomery County at 8 and Lancaster County with 6 people on Death Row. #7 is Lehigh county at 5, as is Northumberland County. Then we get our second county and Third Counties from the Western Part of the State in this list, Westmoreland at five, Fayette at five.

Thus out of the top eleven counties in Pennsylvania with people on Death Row, three are in the west, 7 are in the East. Chester County then comes with four people on Death Row. Cumberland, Dauphin, Bradford, Schuylkill, and Blair Counties come in at three apiece. Bradford is a Northern Tier County, Blair is sometimes considered Western Pennsylvania, through it is East of the Eastern Continental Divide (Allegheny Mountain). Thus out of the top 17 counties, four are from Western Pennsylvania (Including Blair County, Largest City Altoona), one from the Northern Tier, the other 12 from Eastern Pennsylvania.

Now, the counties around Allegheny County diverage, Westmoreland has five people on Death Row, Butler has one, Washington has one, Armstrong, Indiana and Beaver Counties have none (Somerset and Bedford Counties have none). Greene County has one, through Fayette has Five. That is southwestern PA. Total, including Pittsburgh, 17. York and Berks County together beat out that number with 24 between them. Eastern Pennsylvania has a much larger population then Western Pennsylvania, but Eastern Pennsylvania hands out the death sentence way more often on a per person basis then Western Pennsylvania.

Berk has a population of 413,000, York County has a population of 438,000, thus between then 860,000 people NOT the 1.2 Million of Allegheny County, yet those two counties NOT only beat out Allegheny's Counties number of 9 people on Death Row, they beat out all of Western Pennsylvania even if you include Jefferson, Blair (Altoona) and Cambria (Johnstown) Counties (Total is thus 22), If you include Erie and Clearfield counties that comes to 29 West of Allegheny Mountain. The population of Western Pennsylvania is NOT that much less then Eastern Pennsylvania, thus why does the East sent more people to death row?