Death Penalty
Background
Pennsylvania, whose founders envisioned
a place where peace, justice and civil
liberties would be revered, has become a
case study in the failure of the death
penalty. Nationally, the death penalty
has consistently been imposed on the
marginalized in society – the poor, and
racial and ethnic minorities.
Pennsylvania is no different. With
the fourth largest death row in the
United States, more than 90% of
Pennsylvania’s 200 prisoners on death
row were too poor to afford legal
representation. Perhaps more
shocking is that almost 70% of those
sentenced to the death penalty in
Pennsylvania are non-white. A 1998
study conducted by two of the country's
foremost researchers on race and capital
punishment documents the "infectious
presence of racism" in death sentencing
in Philadelphia, which has more people
on death row than most states.
Moreover, the American Bar Association
released a study in October 2007 that
specifically showed Pennsylvania’s death
penalty to be unfair and inaccurate.
The ABA found that there are
insufficient safeguards in place to
protect the innocent. In addition,
Pennsylvania fails to provide adequate
defense attorneys for capital defendants
and continues to have significant racial
bias in the administration of capital
cases.
Instead of being a tool for justice the
death penalty has been a response to
violence driven by vengeance and fear.
In 2007 Senate Bill 850 was introduced
by Senators Ferlo, Fontana, Washington,
Kitchen Hughes and C. Williams.
SB 850 will establish a commission to
study the death penalty in Pennsylvania
and to establish a two-year moratorium
while the study is being conducted
(LAMPa is a member of the Pennsylvania
Moratorium Coalition. For more
information, please visit
www.pamoratorium.org). This is an
important first step toward ending a
system that is broken, unfair, and
biased against the most vulnerable in
our society. Unfortunately, the bill
has stalled in the Senate Judiciary
Committee. The House has yet to take up
the issue but is expected to see a
similar bill introduced in the next few
weeks.
ELCA Policy Base
(The Death Penalty, 1991)
“Executions harm society
by mirroring and reinforcing existing
injustice… [The death penalty]
perpetuates cycles of violence... The
practice of the death penalty undermines
any possible moral message we might want
to ‘send.’ It is not fair and fails to
make society better or safer. The
message conveyed by an execution is one
of brutality and violence... Because of
[our] church’s commitment to justice …we
oppose the death penalty.”
The ELCA is committed to
restorative justice,…”which means
addressing the hurt of each person whose
life has been touched by violent crime.
Restorative justice makes the community
safer for all...Executions focus on the
convicted murderer, providing very
little for the victim’s family or anyone
else whose life has been touched by the
crime. Capital punishment also focuses
on retribution, reflecting a spirit of
vengeance. Executions do not
restore broken society and
can actually work counter to restoration...
[We] recognize the need to protect
society…[so we advocate] removing offenders
from the general population, placing them in
a secure facility and denying them the
possibility of committing further crime.”
“Despite attempts to provide legal
safeguards, the death penalty has not been
and cannot be made fair… The system cannot
be made perfect since biases, prejudice, and
chance affect who is charged with a capital
crime, what verdict is reached, and whether
appeals will be successful. Since human
beings are fallible, the innocent have been
executed in the past and will inevitably be
executed in the future. Death is different
punishment from any other; the execution of
an innocent person is a mistake that [can
never be corrected].”
What
You Can Do:
Visit, call and/or e-mail your
State Senator and urge
him/her to support Senate Bill 850,
death penalty moratorium legislation.
Please also encourage them to co-sponsor the
bill – the bill needs as much support as
possible if it is to move forward.
Visit, call and/or e-mail your
State Representative and
urge him/her to co-sponsor and
support death penalty moratorium legislation.
Below is critical information you can share
with your legislators when communicating
with them:
·
Innocent lives are in the balance
o
Since 1973, at least 123 death row inmates
have been released after evidence proved
their innocence.
o
Six
men have been wrongfully convicted and
released from Pennsylvania’s death row,
twice as many people as the state has
executed.
·
Inadequate defense resources for the poor
o
More than 90 percent of Pennsylvania’s
death row prisoners were too poor to afford
a lawyer for their initial trial. And after
sending an individual to death row,
Pennsylvania provides no state funding for
post-conviction legal defense.
o
The
PA State Supreme Court released a report in
March 2003, which emphasized that the state
is failing to provide adequate counsel to
indigent defendants.
·
Racially skewed death penalty sentences
o
Of
states with more than 10 people on death
row, Pennsylvania and Texas have the largest
percentage of minorities on death row
nationwide.
o
Independent researchers found that, even
after controlling for case differences,
blacks in Philadelphia were 3.9 times more
likely to get the death penalty than other
defendants who committed similar murders.
·
Pennsylvanians want a justice system that is
fair
o
A
recent poll shows that 72% of Pennsylvanians
favor suspending the death penalty until
questions of fairness can be studied.
o
Almost 200 organizations throughout
Pennsylvania have called for a moratorium on
executions, including professional
associations, small businesses, churches,
and city councils
April 2008
