Creators Syndicate
December 17, 2024
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently pointed out that
"Governors and presidents have unique power to grant pardons and clemency
and commute sentences. It is an absolute power, and it is a power that should
be used incredibly carefully."
Recently, President Joe Biden granted clemency to nearly
1,500 Americans — the most ever in a single day, according to the White House.
Biden was convinced these men and women had shown a successful record of
rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer.
The president commuted the sentences of individuals who were
placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have
successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. He also pardoned
39 individuals who were convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Biden's decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of
Michael Conahan has become a flash point in northeastern Pennsylvania. Biden
has always talked with affection about his upbringing in Scranton,
Pennsylvania. However, his decision to commute Conahan's sentence has ruffled
feathers in his old hometown and beyond.
In what became known as the "kids-for-cash"
scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile
detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of
Conahan's who built and co-owned two for-profit detention centers.
Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a
zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children would fill the
beds of the private centers. The scandal prompted the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court to throw out about 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300
children.
The people of Pennsylvania have had a complicated and
politically distorted view of clemency.
In Pennsylvania, the governor's clemency authority, derived
by Article IV, Section 9 of the state constitution, is limited by the Board of
Pardons. The board is comprised of the lieutenant governor, attorney general
and three members appointed by the governor. Traditionally, if a majority of
the board were to vote in favor of an application, the board recommends
favorable action to the governor. If less than a majority of the board vote in
favor, the result was a denial by the board and the application was not
forwarded to the governor.
In the 1970s, mercy toward those serving life in prison
flourished. Democratic Gov. Milton Shapp commuted 251 life sentences.
Today, clemency for a life or death sentence requires a
unanimous vote of the board. The change came in 1996 with the election of Gov.
Tom Ridge. During the campaign, Ridge attacked his opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark
Singel, for recommending, as a member of the Board of Pardons, a pardon for
Reginald McFadden. Once released, McFadden committed another murder.
As a result of McFadden, pardons for serious crimes slowed
to less than a trickle in Pennsylvania. Ridge, who won, in part, on the back of
McFadden, never pardoned an inmate serving a life sentence. Ridge's Lt. Gov.
Mark Schweiker, who took over after Ridge became the first secretary of
Homeland Security, pardoned one lifer. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, pardoned five
lifers in eight years, and his successor GOP Tom Corbett commuted zero.
Shapiro, Pennsylvania's current governor, said Biden
"got it absolutely wrong" when he commuted Conahan's sentence.
Shapiro said, "I study every single case that comes
across my desk where there's a request for a pardon or clemency or a reduction
of sentence, and I take it very seriously. I weigh the merits of the case. I
weigh what occurred in the court proceedings. I think about public safety and
victims and all of those issues factor into my decision."
Shapiro's predecessor, Democrat Tom Wolfe, pardon 53 lifers
between 2015 and 2023 — a meager few when compared to Shapp in the 1970s, but a
substantial improvement, nonetheless.
There are many men and women worthy of mercy. Will Biden's
clemency for Conahan have a chilling effect on commutations in Pennsylvania the
same way Reginald McFadden nearly extinguished clemency for inmates facing life
in prison?
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book "The Executioner's Toll, 2010" was
released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on X @MatthewTMangino.
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