Action Needed Today, 9/14/10, Regarding Senate Bill 628 - Death Penalty and Mental Retardation
Action Needed Today, 9/14/10, Regarding Senate Bill 628 - Death Penalty and Mental Retardation
Friends:Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., the House Judiciary Committee will vote on Senate Bill 628, legislation that implements the U.S. Supreme Court's Atkins decision banning capital punishment for persons with mental retardation. It includes the pre-trial procedure for a judge to determine a defendant's mental retardation status. (Our opponents support a post-conviction determination by the convicting jury.)
IF YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE IS ON THE HOUSE JUDICIARY THEN we need you to call them today and urge their "yes" vote on Senate Bill 628 and to oppose all amendments. Those calls need to happen TODAY.
We think we might have 50% plus one vote on the committee but it is very close. The DA's and Fraternal Order of Police are against us. It's been 8 years since Atkins, and PA still has no statute in place to implement Atkins consistently and fairly across the state. Our opponents have no bill in play.
SB 628 has already passed the PA Senate 45-2 (overwhelming majority and in a bipartisan manner) and now we need it to pass the House WITHOUT AMENDMENTS. Amendments at this late date will be tried by our opponents to kill the bill because they know there is insufficient time to get the Senate to go along with their changes.
All major advocacy groups support pre-trial and support SB 628. Advocates are not the only supporters of SB 628. In fact, the PA County Commissioners Association, the PA Catholic Conference and PA Council of Churches, and the PA Bar Association all support passage of SB 628 because they believe too much time has passed since Atkins and Pennsylvania needs a statute to implement it fairly and consistently across the Commonwealth.
Bottom line:
· Senate Bill 628 complies with the U.S. Supreme Court by providing the greatest protection against executing a defendant with mental retardation.
· A person with mental retardation shouldn't have the death penalty hanging over their heads during their trial if they are not even eligible for the death penalty.
· We don't want juries that are biased by evidence of a heinous crime being the ones to make what is essentially a clinical decision about mental retardation.
· Why have county governments and taxpayers pay for a costly capital trial only to find out afterward the defendant was never eligible for capital punishment in the first place?
· If we fail to pass this bill NOW and the next Governor opposes our position, then we will have to advocate on this issue for another 4 to 8 years. The time is now.
The following are the members on the Judiciary Committee:
| Majority(Room 106 IOB) | Minority(Room 218 ROB) |
| Caltagirone, Thomas R. , Chairman Kula, Deberah , Secretary Manderino, Kathy, Subcommittee Chairman on Family Law Pallone, John E., Subcommittee Chairman on Crime and Corrections Petrarca, Joseph A., Subcommittee Chairman on Courts |
Marsico, Ron , Chairman Rock, Todd , Secretary Gabig, Will, Subcommittee Chairman on Crime and Corrections Stevenson, Richard R., Subcommittee Chairman on Family Law Vereb, Mike, Subcommittee Chairman on Courts |
| Brennan, Joseph F. Casorio, James E., Jr. Costa, Dom Drucker, Paul J. Lentz, Bryan R. Shapiro, Josh Vitali, Greg Wagner, Chelsa Waters, Ronald G. White, Jesse |
Creighton, Tom C. Grell, Glen R. Harper, Kate Krieger, Tim O'Neill, Bernie True, Katie |
Stephen H. Suroviec, Executive Director, The Arc of PA
101 S. 2nd St., Suite 8Executive House, Harrisburg, PA, 17101
717-234-2621 - Fax: 234-7615 - website: www.thearcpa.org