Pennsylvania death penalty system likely to change after ABA study Commentary
Pennsylvania death penalty system likely to change after ABA study
Edited by:

Larry Frankel [Legislative Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania]: "[A new] ABA study [has] found that Pennsylvania fails to comply with over 93% of the ABA's 92 recommendations designed to improve the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty. The ABA recommends some very specific changes to the laws in Pennsylvania to minimize the risk of executing the innocent, eliminate shocking racial and geographic disparities, increase the reliability of eyewitness identification, and improve the quality of representation provided to poor defendants.

What are the legal implications of this report? It is entirely conceivable that if the Pennsylvania General Assembly refuses to take any action to respond to the ABA's criticisms, then the state and federal courts will have no alternative but to impose reforms. These same courts are familiar with the problems plaguing Pennsylvania's death penalty system. In the modern era, more than 200 defendants on death row in Pennsylvania have received relief from federal and state courts. One has to think that the judicial system will take some action, if the ABA report does not generate a legislative response."

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