Signed 119 death warrants while in office, without any executions
As one of his last acts in office, Gov. Ed Rendell sent a letter to the General Assembly Friday asking them to re-examine Pennsylvania’s death penalty given the lack of actual state executions.
“There are 386 death warrants that have been signed since the death penalty was put back into law in Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Rendell during a press conference. “There are 217 defendants on death row. I was responsible for signing 119. One of the death penalty cases dates back to my first year as district attorney in 1978 over 32 years ago.”
While affirming his belief in the death penalty as a crime deterrent when applied “expeditiously,” Mr. Rendell argued it is not effective as it currently stands because decades pass between when a crime is committed and the defendant is executed. Only three death row inmates have been executed in Pennsylvania since the penalty was instituted in 1978, and only then because the individuals instructed their lawyers to cease further appeals, something the governor described as “assisted suicide.”
“Mindful of the need to give defendants every opportunity to prove their innocence, mindful of the need to give defendant the right to have access to all technological advances like DNA testing…if we created a system where that existed but the death penalty was carried out in a reasonable expeditious way I still believe it could be an effective deterrent. The truth is that’s simply not the case in Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Rendell.
In his letter to the legislature, Mr. Rendell did not argue for repealing the death penalty but merely to “re-examine the efficacy…under these circumstances.” He suggested a repeal of the death penalty could require a constitutional amendment, as the power is vested in the governor to sign death warrants and provide commutations and pardons.
The problem, as the governor sees it, is the cost associated with the death penalty system – to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, to the law enforcement officers who tried the original case and must revisit it at every appeal, and the families of victims whom Mr. Rendell argued lack closure in the current system.
Costs exist on two sides of the justice system – in the appellate courts and in the prisons. Cases where the death penalty is being pursued are more expensive by default, said the governor, because such a move impacts the jury selection and voir dire or the oath taken by witnesses. The costs follow the case throughout the court system, as the appellate courts are “infinitely” more meticulous in their examination of death penalty cases.
“If the district attorney certifies it’s not a death penalty case it’s much easier to get a jury,” said Mr. Rendell. “Appeals courts are absolutely, infinitely more meticulous, infinitely more willing to grant reviews when there’s a death sentence attached. The costs are substantially more and to keep someone on death row as opposed to the general population is also an additional expense to the criminal system.”
According to the state Department of Corrections (DoC), every inmate costs $33,000 but death row inmates are sequestered from all other inmates. They are kept in solitary confinement 22 hours a day and are handcuffed, shackled and escorted when they leave their cells. That translates into more staff to handle every death row inmate.
“Capital case inmates do require more intensive staffing whenever they are out of their cells for whatever reason,” said Susan McNaughton, spokesperson for the DoC. “They are escorted by at least two officers. I think the expense we have in that area is staffing.”
With 217 death row inmates, that means a cost of $7.161 million annually. That cost would not decrease if the death penalty was reduced to life without parole or hope of commutation, the governor’s alternative to the death penalty if it is found by the General Assembly to have outlived its usefulness, but the staffing costs would decrease.
As to whether life without parole would be an effective deterrent, Mr. Rendell argued it would be and would also give closure to the victims’ families.
“That should be an option for the jury,” he said. “If you did away with the death penalty the jury…could return a verdict of just a plain life sentence, which is subject to pardon and commutation, or they pass a special sentence which would be life without parole or commutation. They could make that choice based on the gravity of the offense and the offender’s background.”
But cost and closure are not the only variables at play. Andy Hoover, legislative director for the Pennsylvania ACLU, pointed to the six people since 1986 in Pennsylvania who have been exonerated, and 138 nationwide.
“I’m certain with more than 200 people on death row today there are more innocent people there,” said Mr. Hoover. “The process is long and torturous and expensive but [the governor’s] suggestion that the legislature can find some way to – as he said streamline the process – is not possible or at least it’s really bad public policy because it increases the risk of executing an innocent [person].”
Mr. Hoover also argued that while the technological advancements have helped, DNA evidence from the perpetrator is only available in 15 percent of cases.
“The evolution of DNA evidence tells us there’s a problem but it’s certainly not the solution to the problem,” he said. “You have to wonder about the other 85 percent of cases – how many innocent people are in prison.”
