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June 27, 2009
Ruling could aid Pennsylvania prison lifers seeking release
The big word in the headline is COULD.
Lois
Posted on Fri, Jun. 26, 2009
Ruling could aid Pa. prison lifers seeking release
PETER JACKSON
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A federal judge has reaffirmed a ruling that could make it easier for inmates serving life sentences in Pennsylvania prisons to get commutation requests considered by the governor.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Scranton could affect hundreds of lifers who committed their crimes before voters amended the state constitution in November 1997 to toughen the standards for clemency requests from lifers.
The amendment, part of an anti-crime package advocated by then-Gov. Tom Ridge, requires the unanimous approval of the state Pardons Board before a commutation is recommended to the governor , allowing a single board member to block a commutation. Before that, only a majority vote by the five-member board was needed.
In the latest ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Caputo reiterated that applying the stricter rules to inmates convicted of crimes committed before the 1997 referendum amounted to unconstitutional, ex post facto punishment.
Caputo initially decided the case in 2006. The state appealed, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case to Caputo in 2007 to determine whether several inmates, citizens and groups that had joined the case as plaintiffs had sustained a legal injury that entitled them to participate.
In his June 11 ruling, Caputo dismissed all plaintiffs except for the prison society.
He also reaffirmed his conclusion about the disparate treatment of lifers seeking commutations, although lawyers in the case said the circuit court has not scrutinized that issue.
Only three life sentences have been commuted in the 12 years since the referendum, according to Bill DiMascio, executive director of the prison society, the nation's oldest prisoner advocacy group. In the three preceding decades, he said, such commutations were granted, on average, 10 times a year.
Members of the prison board "are hearing very few cases and very few of them are getting a majority vote," so complying with the ruling would not result in the "wholesale release" of murderers, he said.
Gov. Ed Rendell and state Attorney General Tom Corbett are among the state officials discussing whether to appeal Caputo's decision, their spokesmen said.
DiMascio said he was disappointed that Caputo did not order the pardons board to forward commutation requests from two lifers whose crimes were committed before 1997 , Jackie Lee Thompson and Keith O. Smith , and whose requests were denied even though they were approved by 4-1 votes of the board several years ago.
John Heaton, secretary of the pardons board, said any action on the requests would be premature because the 30-day appeal period is pending.
Members of the board are Corbett, Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati, psychologist Russell A. Walsh, victim representative Louise B. Williams and corrections expert John E. Wetzel.
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090626_ap_rulingcouldaidpaprisonlifersseekingrelease.html
Posted by lois at June 27, 2009 11:24 AM