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| Court Ruling Could Save Dozens of Penn. Death Row Inmates |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/10/2002 |
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An ambiguous phrase could mean deliverance for dozens of killers on Pennsylvania's death row. In November, a federal appeals court threw out George Banks' death sentence for killing 13 people in a 1982 shooting rampage in Wilkes-Barre, ruling that the jurors might have been confused by the standard set of jury instructions used in capital cases in Pennsylvania during the 1980s. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to hear the Banks case. If the ruling is allowed to stand, the state could be forced to drop death sentences against at least 30 other men on death row, according to the attorney general's office. In Pennsylvania, a jury can impose a death sentence only if it unanimously finds that the crime involved certain aggravating circumstances, such as torture. It can reject the death penalty if even one juror finds that mitigating circumstances existed, such as diminished mental capacity on the part of the defendant. The problem, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held, is that a sentence on Pennsylvania's jury instruction card during the 1980s may have left jurors with the impression that they had to be unanimous on both aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The instructions which were changed in 1990 were used in most capital cases during the 1980s, though in some instances judges departed from the instructions and explained them more fully. So far, the Banks ruling has prompted the courts to throw out the death sentences of several of Pennsylvania's 245 death row inmates, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, a convicted cop killer who has become a cause celebre in the debate over capital punishment. In the cases set aside, judges ordered prosecutors to either hold new sentencing hearings for the defendants, or reduce their punishment to life in prison. But prosecutors have said that holding new sentencing hearings which would involve convening a new jury, corralling old witnesses and staging much of the original trial would be difficult given the time that has passed. |
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