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| Penn. Pardons Board Breaks Ground, OKs Clemency |
| By The Patriot News |
| Published: 01/03/2003 |
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Ricki Pinkins made criminal-justice history yesterday. Serving life in prison for lending a gun to a group of friends who used it to rob a bar in Sharon and kill its owner, Pinkins received a 5-0 recommendation for a commutation from the state Board of Pardons. His is the first recommendation for clemency granted to any 'lifer' or death row inmate in Pennsylvania since a Constitutional amendment requiring a unanimous board vote was adopted in 1997. It becomes the first such case to go to the governor's desk since November 1996. No lifer in Pennsylvania has won a commutation of his or her sentence since 1994, the year that a pardoned murderer, Reginald McFadden, was arrested on new charges stemming from two homicides and a rape in New York state. The McFadden pardon severely damaged the 1994 Democratic gubernatorial candidacy of Mark Singel. As lieutenant governor and a member of the pardons board, Singel had been among the board members who recommended that McFadden's sentence be commuted. Then-Republican candidate Tom Ridge used the McFadden case to portray Singel as soft on crime. Yesterday, Pinkins' parents, his wife and other family members gasped with relief and joy as the vote was recorded. Emma Pinkins, the inmate's mother, closed her eyes, fell back in her seat and mouthed a quiet prayer. Pinkins, 42, was convicted in July 1982 of second-degree murder after refusing a plea offer from the Mercer County district attorney to plead guilty to robbery charges for his role. A key prosecution witness testified at the time that Pinkins, while not present during commission of the crime, was aware of the plot and received a share of the loot for letting them use the gun. But Pinkins, who gave police critical information that helped them solve the case, has always denied any advance knowledge of the plot or receipt of money. His appellate attorney, Randall Hetrick, noted that two of the five men convicted of the robbery have been released from prison after entering pleas to third-degree murder. Hetrick said he was bringing Pinkins' case before the board now because his client -- whom prosecutors concede had the 'most peripheral role' of all the defendants -- has served more than the 20-year maximum term in place for third-degree murder at that time. But board members seemed most impressed that there were no objections to Pinkins' application from police, prosecutors, the trial judge or victim Orlando Porrecca's family. 'I think if anybody in the system had opposed it [a commutation], it may well have been blocked,' said Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair. Jubelirer chairs the board in his capacity as lieutenant governor. 'But there was absolutely no opposition to this at any place.' The case goes to the governor's desk for action, most likely after pardons board members sign off on a written recommendation in February. The governor can accept or deny the recommendation at any time. Influenced by the McFadden case, the General Assembly and Pennsylvania voters have made it more difficult in the years since for any inmate sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty to gain a pardon. In the 1997 referendum, voters changed the pardons process to require a unanimous recommendation from the five-member board before any commutation case can be considered by a governor. Since then, the board has only agreed to hear four commutation cases, none of which was granted until yesterday. Yesterday's result was welcomed by leaders of the state's criminal-justice reform community, which is bitterly opposed to the 1997 constitutional amendment and has challenged it in federal court. 'It's wonderful that it seems that some sense of justice has been done in this case,' said William DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which advocates for fair treatment of inmates. But he said the prison society will proceed with a suit to reopen the pardoning process, in order to ensure what it believes will be a fairer process for all. Pennsylvania is one of three states that give people sentenced to life in prison no chance for parole. Although its prison population of 39,300 pales in comparison with some other states, it has the country's highest number of inmates serving life sentences. |
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