Creators: Trump's Death Penalty Order a Challenge to the 8th Amendment

Matthew T. Mangino
Creators
January 28, 2025

The first Trump administration carried out more executions than any president in at least a century. Shortly after being sworn in for a second time, President Donald Trump signed an order to expand the death penalty.

It should come as no surprise that a second Trump Department of Justice will seek capital punishment more often under his administration. That would be a clear break from the prior administration.

Former President Joe Biden declared a moratorium on executions when he took office. He campaigned in 2020 on ending the federal death penalty. Legislation proposing to end state-sponsored death failed to gain any traction in Congress during the Biden administration.

During his final days in office, Biden thwarted Trump's plan to resume executions by commuting the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row.

Biden knew what was coming. Under the first Trump administration, the federal government carried out 13 executions in a little more than six months following a 17-year pause.

The federal executions of 2020 included: the first federal execution in 57 years for a crime committed in a state that had abolished the death penalty; executions carried out against the wishes of the victims' families; and the first lame-duck executions in more than a century.

After losing his bid for reelection, Trump oversaw six executions during the presidential transition period, more than any other administration in the history of the United States. Prior to 2020, the federal government carried out only three executions in the modern era of the death penalty. This time around, Trump will have only three inmates to choose from on death row, and it is unlikely that any federal death sentence imposed during his tenure will be eligible for execution before he leaves office.

In the past, the U.S. attorney general had wide latitude in deciding whether to seek the death penalty in individual cases. Trump's order instructs the office to pursue federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty, "regardless of other factors," for people who murder a law enforcement officer or who are in the country illegally and commit a capital crime.

More troubling is the portion of Trump's order that addresses the 37 men whose death sentences were commuted to life without parole. The order provides, "[T]he Attorney General shall take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders [commuted persons] are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose."

Is Trump suggesting torture or something akin to it — like feeding inmates bread and water and locking them in tiny, unsanitary cells without interaction with others; no exercise; no contact with the outside world?

Miriam Gohara, a clinical professor of law at Yale Law School, told The Marshall Project the president's order raises legal concerns. "The punishment is being incarcerated. The punishment is not the condition of confinement. That's not legal," she said.

"The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment," Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told NPR. "There are limitations, both under the Constitution and international standards, that prohibit keeping people in torturous conditions."

"Are they going to intentionally put some sort of atmosphere in place that is intolerable?" added Gohara. "I can't imagine that is actually something that they could carry out. On the other hand, I don't want to underestimate them either."

Professor Gohara is right. Don't underestimate Trump. The U.S. Constitution may not be enough to constrain the new Department of Justice. On Day 1, Trump also declared that he wants to eliminate "birthright citizenship," a sacrosanct constitutional right adopted more than 150 years ago and delineated in the 14th Amendment.

How about the 22nd Amendment's limitation on presidential terms? With President Trump, everything is on the table.

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.

To visit Creators CLICK HERE

Trump's view of those federal prisoners with commuted death sentences is alarming

Shortly after being sworn in, President Donald Trump signed an order to expand the death penalty, confirming a widespread expectation that the Department of Justice may seek capital punishment more often under his administration, reported The Marshall Project. The first Trump administration carried out more executions than any president in at least a century. But legal experts say the order is short on details about how the administration will carry out its plans in the face of legal and bureaucratic barriers.

“This executive order is lacking in so many important details that it’s hard to know exactly what’s intended by some of these statements. Much of it sounds more like campaign rhetoric than policy statements,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that researches and analyzes the issue.

Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, fought to maintain death sentences when she was attorney general in Florida.

In the past, the U.S. attorney general has had wide latitude in deciding whether to seek the death penalty in individual cases. Trump’s order instructs the office to pursue federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty, “regardless of other factors,” for people who murder a law enforcement officer or who are in the country illegally and commit a capital crime.

But Maher said it would be “unprecedented and contrary to established law” for prosecutors to seek a federal death sentence for every capital crime where the defendant is an undocumented immigrant.

Stories about Trump administration policies affecting criminal justice and immigration, and the president’s own criminal cases.

Republicans in Congress and state legislatures have long sought to expand use of the death penalty for people who kill police. Under federal law, jurors can consider the targeting of law enforcement as an “aggravating factor” in deliberating over the death penalty when the victim is a federal agent, judge or corrections officer. Several U.S. senators recently introduced the Thin Blue Line Act, which would add local and state police officers, firefighters and other first responders to the law.

Miriam Gohara, a clinical professor of law at the Yale Law School, said the most striking piece of Trump’s order regarded the people who had their sentence commuted from death to life in prison. Before leaving office, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people. Trump’s order said the attorney general should ensure that those people are “imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”

Gohara said that raises legal concerns. “The punishment is being incarcerated. The punishment is not the condition of confinement. That's not legal,” she said.

People in maximum-security facilities already face harsh conditions, like the use of solitary confinement. “Are they going to intentionally put some sort of atmosphere in place that is intolerable?” said Gohara. “I can't imagine that is actually something that they could carry out. On the other hand, I don't want to underestimate them either.”

Trump’s order also said officials will explore whether some of the people whose sentences were commuted can be charged in state courts and receive new death sentences that way. But Gohara was skeptical that prosecutors would spend precious resources on decades-old cases where the person was already in a federal prison for life.

While the Trump administration has no jurisdiction over state cases, the president’s order says the federal government will work to ensure that states can keep killing people on death row by helping local governments obtain drugs for lethal injection.

Pharmaceutical companies have been refusing to supply corrections agencies with the deadly drugs, citing moral and business concerns. Some states have abandoned executions, while others have explored alternative ways to kill people, including firing squads and gas chambers.

​The order also instructs the attorney general to work to overthrow Supreme Court precedents that “lim­it the authority of state and fed­er­al gov­ern­ments to impose capital punishment.” The order does not reference specific cases, but this could be an allusion to Supreme Court rulings that limit the death penalty when the person convicted was under 18 at the time of the crime or has an intellectual disability. It could also refer to Supreme Court rulings that death sentences are inappropriate in cases where the victim does not lose their life. There have recently been efforts in states like Florida to allow capital punishment for the rape of a child.

While the order directs federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty more often, there is no guarantee that they will succeed in any individual case. Roughly half of Americans still support the death penalty in various polls, but a growing number reject it in individual cases when serving as jurors. The decline in support owes to a mix of interrelated factors: changing societal views on mental illness and intellectual disability, aggressive efforts by defense lawyers to present defendants’ childhoods as mitigating factors and reluctance by prosecutors to seek the punishment in the first place. Last year, 26 people were sentenced to death in state and federal courts across the country, compared with a peak of more than 300 a year in the mid-1990s, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

North Carolina governor commutes 15 death sentences to LWOP

 Across the country, death sentences began a steep and steady decline twenty-five years ago. Today, just a relic of the prior practice remains in a handful of scattered counties, which maintain the practice at great public expense. North Carolina is no exception to this national trend, reported the Raleigh News & Observer. 

The death penalty is at the end of its rope. There are good reasons why. As a law professor who works to promote effective policy, it is clear to me that many of our responses to crime are based on inertia and emotion rather than solid evidence. That is especially true for the death penalty, which has no deterrent effect, costs taxpayers dearly and is riddled with errors and biases. 

That is why Gov. Roy Cooper’s commutation of 15 death sentences to life without parole sentences bears great significance. Cooper is the first governor in the history of North Carolina’s modern death penalty to grant more than two such commutations. With his action, Cooper acknowledged, in detailing a series of factors these cases implicated, the death penalty’s flaws and the responsibility of elected leaders to move away from this failed policy. 

Before these 15 commutations, it housed 136 people, nearly all of whom were sentenced more than 20 years ago. Today, capital trials are rare and juries almost never choose death sentences. In 2024, just three death penalty trials occurred with no new death sentences. A new Gallup poll found death penalty support continuing to erode among all groups, but especially among young people.

The death row commutations, alongside other commutations and pardons, are part of a larger effort to move toward smarter approaches to public safety. In 2020, Cooper created the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, a huge step towards addressing racial inequities embedded in our criminal system. In 2021, he created the Juvenile Sentence Review Board to begin to ameliorate excessive sentences imposed on children. In 2023, he formed the Office of Violence Prevention, which takes a public health approach to preventing violence by strengthening communities. 

 To read more CLICK HERE

Mangino quoted in Fox News article

 Great to contribute to this Fox News article by Audrey Conklin on President Biden's death row commutations.

"While generally, Biden revealed his disdain for the death penalty, he does believe — and his actions prove it — that there needs to be a death penalty for some."

--Matthew Mangino

To read CLICK HERE

Creators: Will Biden's Commutation Further Chill Clemency in Pennsylvania?

Matthew T. Mangino
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.

To visit Creators CLICK HERE

President Biden pardons 39 and grants clemency to nearly 1,500

 President Biden announced pardons for 39 people and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 others, setting a new daily record for clemency with a focus on those who were under home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported The Hill.

The sweeping act of clemency came as Biden has been under pressure to pardon individuals after he granted one for his son, Hunter. The president in a statement said he would take more steps in the weeks ahead before he leaves office.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”

The White House said it was the largest act of clemency in a single day in modern history.

Biden announced pardons for 39 individuals who he said had successfully rehabilitated their lives and contributed to their communities. They were each convicted of non-violent crimes, the White House said, and included a military veteran, a nurse who led natural disaster responses and an addiction counselor.

The roughly 1,500 individuals who had their sentences commuted had been under home confinement for at least a year under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a law passed in 2020 during the pandemic that allowed for extended home confinement for certain prisoners when COVID-19 was rampant. The Associated Press reported that at one point, one-in-five prisoners had the virus.

“These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance,” Biden said in a statement.

Prior to Thursday’s announcement, Biden had issued 122 commutations and 21 pardons, and he offered sweeping clemency to those convicted of marijuana use on federal lands.

He has faced growing pressure in his final weeks in office to use his presidential pardon powers, with advocates ramping up their efforts after Biden’s controversial decision to pardon his son.

The president had for months insisted he would not pardon Hunter Biden, who was convicted on gun charges and pleaded guilty to federal tax charges earlier this year. But he reversed course earlier this month, arguing that his son’s cases had been influenced by politics.

Some Democrats have suggested Biden should preemptively pardon individuals who might be targeted by the incoming Trump administration, such as members of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Others have called for him to grant clemency to those on death row.

“I will take more steps in the weeks ahead,” Biden said Thursday. “My Administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances.”

To read more CLICK HERE

 

Pope Francis prays for commutation of federal death sentences

'Wink-Wink' fellow Catholic President Joe Biden

Pope Francis prayed that the sentences of inmates on death row in the United States be commuted or changed, reported Vatican News.

His prayer during the Angelus address comes as US President Joe Biden has the authority to commute the sentences of people on federal death row before he leaves office in January 2025.

“Today, I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death row in the United States,” the Pope said. “Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

“Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.”

Anti-death penalty activists and associations have been imploring President Biden to use his clemency powers before he leaves office to spare the lives of about 40 federal death row inmates who are at peril of imminent execution when the next president takes office.

To read more CLICK HERE

Biden slow to commute sentences, just topped 100 last month

President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 31 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes who were serving time in home confinement, the White House announced, as reported by The Associated Press.

Many would have gotten a lower sentence if they were charged today with the same offense because of changes in the laws. A commuted sentence means they’ll spend less time in home confinement.

The commutations came as the White House announced a set of policy actions across 20 different agencies meant to improve the criminal justice system, which disproportionately affects Black and other non-white communities. The president announced his reelection campaign this week, and must keep Black voters in his coalition if he wants to win in 2024.

The plan is an effort to expand health care access, affordable housing and education, and make it easier for those who have been mixed up in the system to get jobs, higher education and vote. The effort includes a plan to make more grants available for people who need funding for education, and small business loans.

Those whose sentences were commuted included men and women convicted of drug possession in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas, and they will all finish serving time June 30. If any are in prison, they will finish out their terms in home confinement, and won’t have to pay the rest of their fines which range from $5,000 to $20,000.

Roughly 600,000 U.S. residents leave prison each year, and another 9 million cycle in and out of jail. As many as one in three Americans has a criminal record. That stigma can make it hard to get a job, go back to school or start a business.

“Far too many of them face steep barriers to getting a job or a home, obtaining health care, or finding the capital to start a business,” said outgoing domestic policy adviser Susan Rice, the first person to hold both national security and domestic policy adviser positions in the White House. She is leaving her post after two years and her last day is May 26.

“By investing in crime prevention and a fairer criminal justice system, we can tackle the root causes of crime, improve individual and community outcomes, and ease the burden on police,” she said.

The Democratic president has commuted the sentences of 75 other people so far. He also pardoned thousands who were convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law, and others who have long since served out their sentences.

To read more CLICK HERE

 

California governor granting clemency at record pace

Twenty killers serving life sentences that were recently commuted by California Gov. Jerry Brown, reported the Washington Post. With barely four months left in office, California’s longest-serving governor is granting forgiveness to record numbers of criminals.

Brown has handed out more than 1,100 pardons benefiting a wide array of individuals, including those convicted of dealing drugs, driving while intoxicated and forgery. The tally is staggeringly greater than the totals of his immediate predecessors. Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger granted 15 pardons, and Democrat Gray Davis ended with zero.

Perhaps more remarkable are the commutations, which grant parole hearings to — and often spell early release for — criminals who previously may have had no chance of ever being paroled. Brown has issued 82 in the past seven years, far more than any California governor since at least the 1940s. Criminal justice reformers nationwide applaud him. Victims rights advocates are livid.

“2018 is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Patricia Wenskunas, founder and chief executive of the Crime Survivors Resource Center. “The sad reality is, California is not a victim-friendly state. It’s an offender-friendly state.”

California was once a leader in tough-on-crime policies, which turned its prisons into inmate warehouses. Then in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that overcrowding in the state’s prison system amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The decision accelerated a wave of legal reforms that have reduced the prison population by 25 percent. About 115,000 inmates remain locked up in the state’s 33 facilities. The vast majority of those released to date have been nonviolent offenders.

Brown’s commutations for the 20 murder convicts were tucked into a larger batch of pardons and commutations that he handed out last month. The designation isn’t synonymous with freedom but amounts to a reduction of an original sentence. For these 20 men and women, most of whom had been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole, it means they’ll be granted a hearing.

The governor sees his action not as a sign of lenience so much as a societal course correction. “There has been an overshoot in the time many people expect [criminals] to be locked up in a cage or cell,” he said in an interview.

In the 1970s, those convicted of first-degree murder tended to serve about a decade for their crimes, he noted; now it isn’t unusual for such sentences to span a half-century. Some 5,000 prisoners today are serving life sentences without parole in California.

To read more CLICK HERE

Barack Obama: The president of mercy

During President Barack Obama’s last full day in office, he announced 330 more commutations, for nonviolent drug offenders, bringing his total number of clemencies to 1,715, reported the Washington Post.

Obama has granted commutations to more people than the past 12 presidents combined, including 568 inmates with life sentences. He has granted 212 pardons. His final group of clemencies was the most granted on one day in U.S. history.

 “By restoring proportionality to unnecessarily long drug sentences, this administration has made a lasting impact on our criminal justice system,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates. “With 1,715 commutations in total, this undertaking was as enormous as it was unprecedented.”

One clemency activist said, “His gracious act of mercy today sealed his clemency legacy and allowed many truly deserving men and women to be reunited with their families." 

To read more CLICK HERE

GateHouse: President Obama promotes criminal justice reform

Matthew T. Mangino

GateHouse Media

January 6, 2017

In 1990, President Barack Obama was named the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. At that time the review had been around for over a century.

This week, Obama, the first African-American President of the United States, became the first sitting president to write for the Harvard Law Review.

He returned to his Harvard roots by publishing a far-reaching and comprehensive commentary on criminal justice reform. President Obama's 59-page commentary "The President's Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform" outlines a plan to continue reforms in the criminal justice system.

Obama warns, "We simply cannot afford to spend $80 billion annually on incarceration." He goes on to write that America cannot write off the 70 million Americans - almost one in three adults - with some form of criminal record. The country cannot continue to release 600,000 inmates each year without preparing those inmates to reintegrate into society.

The president strongly admonished policymakers not to "ignore the humanity of 2.2 million men and women currently in U.S. jails ... (or) deny the legacy of racism that continues to drive inequality in how the justice system is experienced by so many Americans."

According to Harvard Magazine, Obama touted the successes of his administration in reducing mandatory-minimum sentencing requirements; signing the Fair Sentencing Act, which eliminated the disparity in punishment for crimes involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine; and banned solitary confinement in federal prisons for juveniles and for low-level crimes. He's also commuted the sentences of more than 1,000 inmates.

With two weeks left in office, Obama urged future presidents to continue building on his administration's efforts to reform the criminal justice system. "Presidencies exert substantial influence over the direction of the U.S. criminal justice system," Obama wrote.

"How we treat citizens who make mistakes (even serious mistakes), pay their debt to society, and deserve a second chance reflects who we are as a people and reveals a lot about our character and commitment to our founding principle," Obama wrote.

President Obama outlined seven specific recommendations for continued reform, including the passage of meaningful sentencing reform legislation. He contends "gun violence is an epidemic playing out across the country every day." There must be some common sense restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally unstable.

He lamented the fact that more Americans die from drug overdoses than from traffic accidents and more than three out of five of these deaths involve prescription opioids. Reform must address the easy access to opioids and stem the inevitable transition to heroin.

The president also supports a wide range of research and policy initiatives to strengthen the forensic sciences including "disciplines from DNA analysis and fingerprints, to tire and tread marks, ballistics, handwriting, trace-evidence and toxicological analyses, and digital evidence."

However, will Obama's recommendations fall on deaf ears?

Given President-elect Donald J. Trump's law-and-order persona, his defiant and unsubstantiated rhetoric about rising crime rates, along with his team of advisers - including his nominee for Attorney General - who believe the main problem with incarceration is that there are not enough people in prison, the idea of justice reform is, at best, a far off dream, reported The Marshall Project.

Trump has pledged to dismantle at least some of Obama's reforms. Not to mention, Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions intends to curtail federal oversight of troubled police departments, escalate the war on drugs - including marijuana - and accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants.

There is some hope. "Criminal justice reform will be one of the legislative bills I plan to bring up early on," Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Politico. "It cleared the (Judiciary) committee with a broad bipartisan majority in the last Congress, and I don't expect that to change."

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 atwww.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

To visit the column CLICK HERE

Massachusetts' governor considers blanket commutations to ease prison overcrowding

Massachusetts' Governor Deval Patrick said he would be "very interested" in commuting the sentences of a segment of the inmate population if it would relieve overcrowding in prisons, reported the Lowell Sun. "I have a lot of concerns about the impact on our criminal-justice system, and on the prisons in particular, of non-violent drug offenders and the mandatory minimum around that. We've moved some legislation, tried to make some changes there, and if there was a way to relieve the crowding in the prisons by commuting a class of those cases, I'd be very interested in doing it," Patrick said.

The prison system is almost uniformly crowded beyond the design capacity of the facilities. The two maximum-security prisons are overcrowded with an average occupancy rate of 121 percent, as of Dec. 16, according to the Department of Correction.

The 12 medium security prisons are an average 145 percent occupied, well above the design capacity, with only two -- the medium-security portion of Cedar Junction in Walpole and the Shattuck Hospital Correctional Unit in Jamaica Plain -- under capacity. Houses of correction and jails are occupied at an average of 128 percent of capacity, with Essex County experiencing the greatest overcrowding.

Patrick's proposal comes as a surprise.  He has neither commuted nor pardoned any offenders in his seven years in office.

The last commutation in Massachusetts was granted to Joseph Salvati, at the recommendation of Gov. Bill Weld. In February 1997, the eight-member Governor's Council voted unanimously to commute the first-degree-murder life sentence of Salvati, whose conviction was later overturned when a judge concluded the FBI hid exculpatory evidence.

To read more Click Here

Judge: Condemned inmate can reject governor's reprieve

Death row inmate Gary Haugen won a strange legal battle last week against Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber. A judge ruled Haugen could reject the governor's reprieve of his execution and move forward in his efforts to die by lethal injection.

In November of last year, Kitzhaber announced he would not allow Haugen's December 2011 execution to go forward nor would he permit any death row inmate to be put to death while he was in office. The governor described the death penalty as morally wrong and unjustly administered, and said he hoped voters would repeal the law. "In my mind," he told the Oregonain, "it is a perversion of justice."

Haugen, a execution volunteer refused to accept Kitzhaber's mercy.  He sued the governor seeking to proceed with his execution. Senior Judge Timothy P. Alexander found, "Because (Haugen) has unequivocally rejected the reprieve, it is therefore ineffective," reported the Oregonion.

Haugen was sentenced to life in prison for murdering the mother of his former girlfriend in 1981. He later murdered a fellow prisoner at Oregon State Penitentiary. A jury sentenced him to death in 2007.

In this odd death penalty challenge, the governor intends to appeal the trial court's ruling.

To read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/08/judge_rules_inmate_gary_haugen.html
   

The Cautionary Instruction: Three states, three approaches and three very different results

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
July 27, 2012

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Panetti vs. Quarterman. The court was asked to decide whether a condemned prisoner had a "rational understanding" of his crime and punishment for purposes of execution.

The court also addressed the retributive purpose of capital punishment, "it might be said that capital punishment is imposed because it has the potential to make the offender recognize at last the gravity of his crime and to allow the community as a whole [to] affirm its own judgment that the culpability of the prisoner is so serious that the ultimate penalty must be sought and imposed."

Cases pending before courts in Texas, Oregon and Georgia point to the absurdity of death penalty litigation. In Georgia, the court stayed the execution of a man with an IQ of 69, not because he is mentally retarded, but because a state court wants to examine a newly implemented execution protocol. In Texas, the court said a schizophrenic killer is competent and his execution should proceed. In Oregon, where the governor granted a reprieve to all condemned killers, one man is demanding to be executed.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of condemned killer Warren Hill two hours before his scheduled execution. The high court unanimously granted the stay to determine whether a recent change to Georgia’s lethal injection protocol violates state law.

Separately the court declined to hear Hill’s appeal challenging the state’s standard to determine whether Hill is mentally retarded and thus ineligible for execution.

In Texas, a county judge on Tuesday refused to order a psychiatric evaluation for Marcus Druery to determine whether the inmate is competent to be put to death. All parties agreed that Druery is schizophrenic.

Druery hears voices and believes he is being poisoned with feces-spiked food. His speech is illogical, and although he has been on death row almost six years, he insists that he is serving only a 10-month sentence.

Texas plans to proceed with Druery’s execution even though he refuses to take his medication and does not acknowledge his mental illness.

In Oregon, Governor John Kitzhaber is morally opposed to the death penalty. He granted everyone on death row a reprieve, at least while he is governor. However, not everyone agrees with Kitzhaber, including a recipient of his repreive.

Gary Haugen waived his appeal and volunteered to be executed. His attorney is arguing that in past cases the Oregon Supreme Court has adopted an 1833 U.S. Supreme Court decision authored by Chief Justice John Marshall that suggests inmates must agree to a pardon for it to take effect.

The trial court seems receptive to Haugen’s argument.

Three states, three different approaches and three very different results. The news this week points to the absurdity of a 33 state approach to capital punishment.

Visit Ipso Facto

Romney dispensed little compassion as Mass. Governor

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney refused to grant a single pardon.  Not one offender engendered enough compassion in Romney for him to grant a pardon.

Romney, served as governor from 2003 to 2007, he has proudly advertised his record of granting no pardons, saying he did not want to overturn the decision of a jury.  According to ProPublic.com, Romney received requests for 172 pardons and 100 commutations. The state's Advisory Board of Pardons recommended that he approve more than a dozen applications.

Romney plays-up his conservative credentials yet ignores that the founding fathers acknowledged pardons as an important part of the criminal justice system. Since this country's inception it has been acknowledged that questions of guilt and innocence are best left to the citizenry.  This fundamental right introduces an element of fallibility into the process, mistakes will be made. Some who are guilty will go free, some who are innocent will be convicted.

Pardons are a means to interject compassion and mercy into a somewhat mechanical process. Without the possibility of compassion and mercy, Alexander Hamilton argued, "justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel."  Another words, justice would have a cruel and bloody face.

Romney may not have taken heed of the founding fathers, but he did have sense of history when he refused every single pardon that came before him. Approving a pardon can be a risky move for a governor with national ambitions, reported ProPublica.com. A Massachusetts furlough program that released a convicted murderer, Willie Horton, who went on to rape a woman and beat her fiancé, became a major point of attack against former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis in his 1988 presidential contest with George H. W. Bush.

Massachusetts does not have the death penalty, so Romney never faced a pardon that meant the difference between life and death. Romney did introduce a bill to reinstate the death penalty for some serious crimes. He touted his death penalty plan as 100 percent foolproof. Even the Massachusetts legislature was not fooled by that assertion. Romney's effort did not succeed.

Texas Governor Rick Perry allowed the executions of 238 convicted killers.  Texas is the most prolific state in the country in terms of executions.  However, Perry has pardoned 178 people in his nearly 11 years in office. In his six years as Texas governor, former President George W. Bush pardoned only 21, according to ProPublica.com.

To read more: http://www.propublica.org/article/perry-more-generous-with-pardons-than-romney/single

Pennsylvania Commutes Few Life Sentences

The Lancaster New Era has explored the growing number of geriatric inmates serving life sentences in Pennsylvania. Nearly 4,800 men and women currently are serving life sentences in state prisons. The most recent figures available — from a 2005 state government report — show that the number of elderly lifers in Pennsylvania grew 35 percent from 2001 to 2004, when it reached 1,077.

The governor and Board of Pardons commute few life sentences. The New Era wrote, the state Board of Pardons considers inmates' applications for commutation, or reduction of a sentence currently being served.

Commutation of life sentences once was common. In the 1970s and 1980s, hundreds of applications were heard and commutations granted. But both have dropped sharply in recent years.

A 1997 state constitutional amendment changed the pardon board's makeup. It now includes the lieutenant governor, attorney general and three appointees: a crime victim, corrections expert, and physician, psychiatrist or psychologist.

The amendment also requires a unanimous vote — as opposed to the previous majority — to recommend commutation of a death or life sentence.

The push for the amendment was fueled in part by the case of Reginald McFadden, who had served 26 years of his life sentence in 1994, when Governor Robert Casey granted a commutation recommended by the board, 4-1.

Three months after his release, McFadden was arrested for rape and two killings in New York.

The New Era found that since 1995, the board has heard 28 applications for commutation of a life sentence. Governors granted six of the 10 recommended commutations.

To read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/501287_Lifers-are-growing-part-of-prison-population.html

Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence on Eve of Execution

Ohio Governor John Kasich commuted double murderer Shawn Hawkins' death sentence to life in prison. Governor Kasich said that Hawkins role in a 1989 double murder in Cincinnati is "frustratingly unclear," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Because the doubts are so serious, Kasich said, "Ohio shouldn't deliver the ultimate penalty in this case." On the other hand, he said, Hawkins played a "significant, material role in this heinous crime" and should "spend the rest of his life in prison and have no chance of ever getting out."

According to the Disptach, Hawkins was scheduled to be executed this week at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville for killing Terrence Richard, 18, and Diamond Marteen, 19, in a drug deal gone bad. The two men were found shot to death in a car in a Cincinnati suburb, on June 12, 1989.

It was the first time since taking office in January that Governor Kasich used his gubernatorial clemency power to stop an execution; he previously allowed four killers to be put to death, reported the Disptach.

To read more: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/06/09/kasich-spares-prisoners-life.html?sid=101

Illinois Abolishes the Death Penalty

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed landmark legislation to repeal the state’s “seriously broken” death penalty and then commuted the death sentences of the 15 men currently on death row,reported the Chicago Sun-Times.

“We cannot have a death penalty in our state that kills innocent people,” Quinn said. “If the system cannot be guaranteed 100 percent error free, then we cannot have the system. It cannot stand. It just is not right.”

“I felt once the decision was made to sign the law abolishing the death penalty, it should be abolished for all,” Quinn said of commuting the existing death sentences, reported the Sun-Times. “I do believe the evil-doers should be punished severely in prison without parole ... but without the death penalty.”

Illinois joins 15 other states without the death penalty.

To read more: http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/4225981-418/gov.-pat-quinn-signs-bill-repealing-illinois-death-penalty

Ohio Governor Commutes Death Sentence

Execution Would Have Been the Last Under Governor Strickland

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has spared the life of Sidney Cornwell, a killer scheduled to be executed tomorrow. Cornwell's sentence will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to the Associated Press, the Ohio Parole Board had recommended against mercy for Cornwell, but Strickland said jurors might have chosen a different sentence if they had known of the condition, called Klinefelter Syndrome. The condition caused Cornwell to develop motor and language skills late and gave him large breasts as a boy, which led to repeated teasing.

Cornwell, of Youngstown, was scheduled to die by lethal injection for the killing of Jessica Ballew. The girl was on her porch in Youngstown in 1996 as Cornwell and other Crips gang members were hunting for a member of the Bloods a rival gang. He opened fire on people who apparently knew his intended victim, killing the girl, reported the Associated Press.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said he did not believe Cornwell deserved mercy. "Although I disagree with the governor's decision, I respect his right to make that decision," Gains told the Associated Press.

Seventeen men have been put to death since Governor Strickland took office in 2007. The eight men executed this year is the most in a single year since Ohio re-instituted the death penalty in 1999.

Cornwell is the third death row inmate this year to be spared by the governor. Cornwell is the last inmate to face the death penalty with Strickland as governor. Governor Strickland was defeated in his bid for re-election earlier this month.

To read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ic8rg35Zlm9cqHvMhxNU9xbzR3HA?docId=0102977eeca14d11a3073beafe64232c

Utah Execution by Firing Squad Set for Friday

Ronnie Lee Gardner is scheduled for execution this Friday, June 18th, in Utah. If executions scheduled in Texas and Oklahoma are carried out this week, Gardner will be the 28th person executed in the United States this year. At that pace, there will be a more than 10-percent increase in executions over 2009.

Why would Gardner's execution be any more noteworthy than other executions this year?

Gardner has requested execution by firing squad. Thirty-five states have the death penalty. Utah is the only state to use the firing squad in the modern era of the death penalty. Oklahoma is the only other state where the firing squad is an option. Lethal injection is used in nearly all states, although Virginia executed a convicted murderer by electric chair this year.

Two men have died by firing squad in Utah since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Gary Gilmore, on Jan. 17, 1977 and John Albert Taylor on Jan. 26, 1996.

Recently, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole denied Gardner's request for commutation, and the Utah Supreme Court late Monday turned down his request that his sentence be reduced to life imprisonment or that he be granted a new sentencing hearing. There will no doubt be a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gardner is far from a sympathetic figure. In 1985, he murdered his lawyer during an attempted escape from the Salt Lake City Courthouse. He was there for a hearing on his prior murder conviction. His girlfriend slipped him a handgun while he was being escorted to the courthouse.

Some have suggested that the use of execution by firing squad exposes the barbaric nature of the death penalty. However, it doesn't appear that support for the death penalty is waning. A recent CBS News poll shows 63% of Americans favor the death penalty, a number that’s remained fairly consistent over the past 20 years. The number of executions thsi year is on track to increase for the second year in a row.