Pennsylvania has become a case study in the failure of the death penalty.

 

Did you know that in Pennsylvania… ?

 

• More than 90% of Pennsylvania’s 200 death row inmates (the fourth largest death row population in the country) could not afford legal representation on their own.

 

• Almost 70% of persons on death row are minorities.

 

• The American Bar Association has said Pennsylvania’s system lacks sufficient safeguards to protect the innocent.

 

What has the ELCA said about the Death Penalty?

 

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly passed a social statement on the death penalty in 1991.  While highlighting the fact that this method of punishment has been proven ineffective it further asserts that “executions harm society by mirroring and reinforcing existing injustice…” and that the death penalty “perpetuates cycles of violence”. 

 

“Because of [our] church’s commitment to justice …we oppose the death penalty.”

 

Acknowledging our collective human sinfulness, the ELCA believes that “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. Death is different punishment from any other; the execution of an innocent person is a mistake that [can never be corrected].” 

 

 What is LAMPa asking Advocates to do?

 

Contact your state legislators in support of SB 1110, death penalty moratorium legislation, or in support of repealing the death penalty, SB 1281.

 

SB110 would establish a select commission to study all aspects of capital punishment in this Commonwealth, and provide for a moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty until completion and review of the commission's findings. The bill’s primary sponsor is Sen. Jim Ferlo (D - Western PA) and it was referred to the Senate Judiciary committee on September 29, 2009.

 

SB 1281 would amend Titles 18 (Crimes and Offenses) and 42 (Judiciary and Judicial Procedure) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, prohibiting use of the death penalty. Its primary sponsor is Sen. Daylin Leach (D – Southeastern PA) and the bill was referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on March 18, 2010.

 

Below is critical information you can share with your legislators when communicating with them:

 

 

• Innocent lives are in the balance

 

• Since 1973, at least 123 death row inmates nationwide have been released after evidence proved their innocence.

• 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

 

• 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.

• 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

 

§         Of states with more than 10 people on death row, Pennsylvania and

      Texas have the largest percentage of minorities on death row   

      nationwide.

§         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

 

§      Poll shows that 72% of Pennsylvanians favor suspending the death

      penalty until questions of fairness can be studied.

§      Almost 200 organizations throughout Pennsylvania have called for   

      a moratorium on executions, including professional associations,

      small businesses, churches, and city councils 

 

March 2010