Pennsylvania governor can issue pardons to death row inmates, high court rules

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf  acted within the law when he enforced a moratorium on capital sentence shortly after taking office in January.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Democratic governor suspended the use of the death penalty in the state in February as he caled the system of capital punishment ineffective, unjust and expensive. Mr. Wolf stated the moratorium would continue in effect at least until he revised a forthcoming report from a legislative advisory panel set up in 2011. This is to study the efficiency of the death penalty.

At the time of the governor's order, the state had 186 prisoners on death row.

The governor's ruling was tested in court by Philadelphia's district attorney, Seth Williams, who argued that Mr. Wolf did not have sufficient authority to individually stop capital punishment in the state, charging a separation-of-powers violation.

 UPI stated that the high court had issued a united 33-page ruling that supported Wolf's moratorium. Justice Max Baer wrote for the court "We conclude that at the time the reprieve power was adopted in the 1790 Constitution, the Governor's authority to issue a reprieve was not understood as being limited to granting reprieves with a specific end date or for a purpose relating only to the prisoner's unique circumstances, but rather encompassed any temporary postponement of sentence."

Moreover, Justice Baer added that it is not their task to address the wisdom of Governor Wolf's issuance of Williams' pardon, but only its constitutional validity.

News Works said on its article that prosecutors dared Wolf's verdict, saying pardons had never been used to indeterminately defer an execution. After becoming governor last year, Wolf has issued amnesties in the cases of five sentenced killers, saying he's concerned about the equality of the death penalty.

It was noted that Pennsylvania last executed a prisoner in 1999.

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Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf, Tom Wolf, Supreme Court, moratorium, Seth Williams, Democratic Governor

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