Mary Neal's Sharebook 

Ruling offers hope to PA life inmates
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
INQUIRER

In a decision that offers a sliver of hope for thousands of older life inmates in Pennsylvania, a federal judge has ruled that lifers whose crimes occurred before 1997 may apply for a commutation under the slightly more liberal rules that were once in place.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo, in the Middle District of Pennsylvania based in Harrisburg, revived a challenge to a 1997 referendum that toughened the state Board of Pardons.

Before 1997, a majority vote of the five-member Board of Pardons was needed to recommend that the governor commute a life sentence. The change, a referendum promoted by Gov. Tom Ridge as part of a series of tough-on-crime laws, requires a unanimous vote.

The referendum also changed the board's membership, replacing the seat designated for a lawyer with one for a crime victim and a seat for a penologist with one for a crime expert.

The other members are the lieutenant governor, the state attorney general, and a physician or psychologist appointed by the governor.

The board is the only avenue of release for Pennsylvania lifers, whose are not eligible for parole.

In the three decades before the referendum, about 300 life inmates had their sentences commuted. Since then, said William M. DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, just three have. All three, he added, had been convicted as accomplices.

"Most states that have life without parole do so because they don't have the death penalty," DiMascio said. "But we have both in this state. We ought to have some kind of relief valve. We know that mistakes get made."

He estimated that 3,000 of Pennsylvania's 4,633 lifers had been sentenced for a pre-1997 offense and were thus eligible for a pardon.  See full article at the link:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090626_Ruling_offers_hope_to_Pa__life_inmates.html

*******************