Death Penalty News

Settlement Reached to End Permanent Solitary Confinement for People Sentenced to Death in Pennsylvania

Settlement Reached to End Permanent Solitary Confinement for People Sentenced to Death in Pennsylvania

In the settlement, the department agreed to house people who have been sentenced to death in the same manner as the prisons’ general population.

“The use of long-term solitary confinement on anyone is torture,” said Amy Fettig, deputy director of the National Prison Project. “The conditions Pennsylvania’s DOC was subjecting people on death row to — spending their entire lives in a tiny, filthy cell without any normal human contact, congregate religious services, sufficient access to exercise, sunshine, access to the outdoors, or environmental and intellectual stimulation — weren’t just deeply unconstitutional; they were horribly inhumane.”

New privileges for death row inmates include, but are not limited to:

-contact visits with family, lawyers and religious advisors

-daily showers and phone calls

-group meals and programming

-access to the outdoors, work assignments, the law library and religious worship

PA Supreme Court to Hear Death Penalty Challenge

PA Supreme Court to Hear Death Penalty Challenge

“On Wednesday, Sept. 11, at least four entities will argue in front of the state Supreme Court in a hearing that could ultimately see Pennsylvania's death penalty struck down.”


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Lester Holt: What I learned from spending two nights in a maximum-security prison

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Lester Holt: What I learned from spending two nights in a maximum-security prison

“For two nights I slept and to a limited extent lived like an inmate in Angola, housed in a tiny cell in the same facility where the most difficult inmates are kept, and chillingly just a few steps away from death row. Journalism thrives on access. To understand the issues of criminal justice reform that are now riding atop a bipartisan wave, it was important to me to get close. And so I did.”

Op Ed: Victims Against the PA Death Penalty

Op Ed: Victims Against the PA Death Penalty

Vicki Schieber lost her daughter Shannon in 1998 to a serial rapist and murderer. Prior to the trial, Vicki and her husband decided, based on their Catholic faith, that they didn’t want their daughter’s murderer to be executed. The prosecutor ignored them and pursued the death penalty.

“The case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court argues that Pennsylvania’s death penalty system is cruel. I have lived that truth. Victims deserve better than endless trials and appeals that expend countless dollars on death penalty cases. We deserve better than a system meting out the ultimate punishment in our name whether we want it or not.

Pennsylvania should abolish the death penalty and replace it with a system that truly honors victims and their surviving family members.”

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New PA Grant Program for Indigent Capital Defense

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New PA Grant Program for Indigent Capital Defense

Pennsylvania was previously the only state in the country without state-wide funding for capital defense. This year however, Pennsylvania’s legislature has allocated $500,000, partly in response to a bipartisan state study on the death penalty. While the funds are a start to improving the quality of defense for those facing capital punishment, there are significant problems to overcome.

“Imagine there’s a terrible drought across Pennsylvania and the Legislature decides to address the problem by opening up a lemonade stand in Harrisburg,” Bookman said. “That’s what they’ve done here to address the state-wide problem with capital punishment.”

It's Time for Pennsylvania to Abolish the Death Penalty

It's Time for Pennsylvania to Abolish the Death Penalty

The strongest argument against the death penalty in Pennsylvania: More people have been exonerated than executed. Read more in this week’s @PhillyInquirer editorial

#Pennsylvania #DeathPenalty

The death penalty punishes PA's corrections workers, too

The death penalty punishes PA's corrections workers, too

In her opinion, former SCI Graterford Superintendent Cynthia Link provides an unusual perspective on the death penalty in Pennsylvania. She describes in excruciating detail what its like to work with death-sentenced inmates.

In particular, she explains that the traumatic toll on staff assigned to that unit is so great, that they are not permitted to work there for more than 2 years. What's worse? While she was at least able to take some action to help her staff cope, there was little to nothing she could do for death-sentenced prisoners.

Please read & share.

#Pennsylvania #DeathPenalty

Krasner Argues Pennsylvania's Death Penalty is Unconstitutional

Krasner Argues Pennsylvania's Death Penalty is Unconstitutional

Last year, federal defenders filed briefs with the PA Supreme Court on behalf of two clients, Cox and Marinelli, asking the Court to examine Pennsylvania’s use of the death penalty, and ultimately find it unconstitutional. A number of other organizations, including ACCR, have filed amicus briefs in support of finding the death penalty unconstitutional. Support for the position was in large part due to the results of a bipartisan study that characterized PA’s death penalty as seriously problematic.

In a brief filed Monday night, reformist prosecutor Larry Krasner urged the Supreme Court to find that the current death penalty violates the state constitution. His position is based heavily on an internal study of 155 convictions. According to the findings within the brief, 72% of Philadelphia’s death penalty cases have been overturned, largely due to ineffective assistance. Furthermore, out of the 45 people currently on death row from Philadelphia, 37 are Black. The brief is the first of its kind filed by any prosecutor’s office in the U.S.

Opinion: Will Pennsylvania Abolish the Death Penalty?

Opinion: Will Pennsylvania Abolish the Death Penalty?

Pennsylvania has one of the largest death rows in the nation and yet is also the only state that does not fund a statewide capital defender program for indigent defendants. Instead, counties are left to finance death penalty defense individually, and the results are severely problematic. Filler outlines some of the reasons why abolition is the only sound solution; the exorbitant cost to impose the death penalty, civil rights/race disparity issues, innocence and the legislature’s refusal to repair the broken system.

Check out opinion piece by Daniel Fuller, the dean of Drexel University’s Klein School of Law, in the @PhillyInquirer.


Opinion: When We Kill

Opinion: When We Kill

"Some day, I believe, Americans will look back at today’s executions just as we now look back at witch burnings and public hangings, and they will ask, 'What were they thinking?'"

Read @NickKristof’s death penalty opinion in @nytimes, published today.

PA Death Sentence Vacated

PA Death Sentence Vacated

A judge in York County vacated the death sentence of Paul Jackson Henry III after determining that the jurors who sentenced him to death failed to consider 2 mitigating factors. The jurors reportedly considered one mitigating factor— that Henry did not kill the eye-witnesses to the murder. However, the prosecution and defense had stipulated to two additional mitigating factors, meaning the jurors had to consider those and weigh them against the aggravators. Because the jurors only listed one mitigating factor (and not the 2 stipulated ones) on their jury slip, it could not be proven whether they considered all the required mitigating factors prior to making a decision.

While Henry’s death sentence has been vacated, his conviction for first-degree murder still stands. Both the prosecution and defense are considering how to proceed; whether to reach a deal or impanel a new sentencing jury.

PA Prosecutors Are Increasingly Reluctant to Pursue Capital Murder Charges

PA Prosecutors Are Increasingly Reluctant to Pursue Capital Murder Charges

Due to the high cost of a capital prosecution, the lengthy legal battles and the likelihood that the sentence will not actually be carried out, prosecutors in Pennsylvania are seeking death sentences less often.

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Brief Filed in PA Supreme Court for Kareem Johnson Case

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Brief Filed in PA Supreme Court for Kareem Johnson Case

A red hat with the victim’s blood and the defendant’s sweat was key to the prosecution’s case against Kareem Johnson. Mr. Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death; he spent the next 9 years of his life on death row. Then, his defense team gained access to the original DNA report and learned that the red hat had no blood on it at all! The Prosecutor claimed that he (along with the lead investigators) “misread the report” and then made a series of “mistakes,” but such a series of calamitous errors seems unlikely. ACCR’s brief urges the Supreme Court to recognize the prosecution’s abhorrent misconduct as intentional and bar retrial for Mr. Johnson on double jeopardy grounds.

A Unanimous Life Verdict in PA Death Penalty Case

A Unanimous Life Verdict in PA Death Penalty Case

A death penalty case against Robert Anderson Jr. has resulted in a guilty verdict and a life sentence in Cumberland County. The judge imposed a sentence of life without parole after the jury deliberated for only approximately 90 minutes, returning 12 (unanimous) votes for life.

Philly Man's Second Conviction Overturned After 28 Years on Death Row

Philly Man's Second Conviction Overturned After 28 Years on Death Row

Orlando Maisonet must now be retried or set free after spending 28 years on death row following 2 homicide convictions. The judge in this case cited prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel when vacating the second conviction. Both convictions were secured by disgraced, and now deceased, ex-prosecutor Rodger King. As a result, criminal justice reform advocates are now calling for a review of all cases handled by King.

Judge Considering Defense Motion to Bar Death Penalty in Pittsburgh Case

Judge Considering Defense Motion to Bar Death Penalty in Pittsburgh Case

The judge in the case against two men accused of a mass slaying in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania said that he is "seriously" considering the motion filed by the defense to dismiss the state’s application of the death penalty. The stress placed on the jurors tasked with deciding the two defendants fate is one of the main factors he intends to consider.

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Inside The Staircase: Lies, Fake Science & The Owl Theory

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Inside The Staircase: Lies, Fake Science & The Owl Theory

NOVEMBER 7TH! Inside the Staircase: Lies, Fake Science & The Owl Theory comes to the Keswick Theater in Glenside. Get your tickets to see David Rudolf, Jerry Buting, Larry Krasner and our co-director Marc Bookman before they sell out!

Washington State Strikes Down Death Penalty, Citing Racial Bias

Washington State Strikes Down Death Penalty, Citing Racial Bias

Thursday's ruling makes Washington the 20th state to abolish capital punishment. According to the ACLU, this state supreme court is the third to do so citing concerns about racial disparities, along with Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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