Some Pennsylvania Legislators Want to Suspend Executions


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/99/May/25/city/EXEC25.htm

Some legislators back suspending executions

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HARRISBURG -- Several state senators, encouraged by last week's vote in
the Nebraska legislature to suspend executions for two years, are urging
Pennsylvania to adopt a similar measure.

One of Gov. Ridge's fellow Republicans has introduced a bill to impose a
two-year ban and commission a study on whether condemned prisoners
receive adequate legal counsel and whether race is a factor in
sentencing.

The sponsor, Sen. Edward W. Helfrick (R., Columbia), routinely submits
bills to abolish the death penalty, but the measures have received no
support in the General Assembly, and Ridge is unlikely to sign a
moratorium. Helfrick also is an outspoken opponent of abortion.

"He introduces these realizing it's a minority opinion, but hoping to
keep the dialogue going," said Helfrick assistant Todd Roup. "He's
pro-life, period."

This year, Ridge made administrative changes to speed the execution
process. Death warrants now are automatically issued within 30 days of
the lifting of any stay of execution, regardless of whether a prisoner
has appeals pending or an unexpired appeal period. It is up to defense
lawyers to request another stay and the courts to decide whether to
grant one.

Ridge used to issue warrants only when a prisoner no longer had active
appeals or unexpired appeal periods. He promised during his 1994
campaign to sign more warrants and to date has signed 163. Only two
executions have been carried out, both in 1995, his first year in
office.

The proposed moratorium is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where
the chairman, Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), a death
penalty proponent, has typically ignored such legislation.

A decision has not been made on whether the committee should consider
this latest bill, but Gregg Warner, the committee's counsel, said
Greenleaf had received "a fair amount of letters" supporting the ban.
None were from lawmakers.

The bill, which has four Democratic co-sponsors, would require that the
commission conduct eight months of study before recommending changes to
the death-penalty law to ensure fairness.

Ridge's chief counsel, Paul Tufano, dismissed the bill. He said that
before the governor considers any death-penalty case, a jury has
convicted an individual, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld
both the conviction and the sentence before sending the case to the
governor's lawyers to review.

"I don't know what more a commission is going to do," Tufano said. "This
is our constitutional process."
 
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