Even as a prosecutor, I've always opposed the death penalty. I realize that's something of a minority view, even among Democrats. I'll admit that I'm unsure whether I would still feel that way if someone murdered a person I care about. I'd like to think I'd remain opposed like the survivors of the Tree of Life Massacre in Pittsburgh. Last week, Governor Josh Shapiro admitted his own shifting views, but said his thinking has evolved over time and is now opposed to the death penalty. Instead of just granting reprieves, as other Governors have done, Shapiro is calling upon the General Assembly to once and for all do away with the sanction of death. Here are some of his remarks, made at Mosaic Community Church in West Philly:
As Attorney General, I had the privilege of seeing our criminal justice system up close as the chief law enforcement officer.
Through that experience, two critical truths became clear to me about the capital sentencing system in our Commonwealth: The system is fallible, and the outcome is irreversible.
I have painstakingly considered every aspect of Pennsylvania’s capital sentencing system, reflected on my own conscience, and weighed the tremendous responsibilities I have as Governor.
And I am here today in this Church to tell you I will not issue any execution warrants during my term as Governor.
When an execution warrant comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve each and every time.
But I want to go further.
Through many administrations, Governors have called on lawmakers to reform the system.
To study what changes could look like.
They’ve been open to the idea that our capital sentencing system is flawed, but fixable.
I believe that misses the mark.
That’s why today, I’m respectfully calling on the General Assembly to work with me to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania – once and for all.
I know that there are people on both sides of the aisle who agree with me on this, and there are those who don’t.
I believe we should work together.
Pennsylvania should do what 25 other states have done in outlawing the death penalty or refusing to impose it – including many of our neighbors such as New Jersey, Maryland, and West Virginia.
This must be bigger than studying this issue or reviewing the system.
We shouldn’t aim to just fix the system.
The Commonwealth shouldn’t be in the business of putting people to death. Period.
I believe that in my heart.
This is a fundamental statement of morality. Of what’s right and wrong.
And I believe Pennsylvania must be on the right side of this issue.
I know there is more work to be done, but today we are taking an important first step towards progress.
So the death penalty wouldn't be appropriate for the thug on video standing over the Temple police officer and unloading rounds into his head and body?
ReplyDeleteDemocrats will continue to ruin our system of laws they must be stopped.
ReplyDeleteI’m a Democrat and I support the death penalty. It’s partisan people like you who paint all with the same brush who are the real problem.
DeleteLets review your logic: Abortion up to the momen of birth - OK. Fomenting WW3 and all its deaths - OK. Executions of the legally convicted - NO. Alrighty.
ReplyDeleteNO.
ReplyDeleteNeed it now more than ever! I say go in the opposite direction and bring back public executions. Shame the worst of society before it over populates the people trying to be good citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhat you really mean is that you want public lynchings to be a thing again?
DeleteInteresting.
Well, considering that black and brown people were usually the casualties of your ancestor’s fixation for murdering people in public and then keeping body parts as souvenirs, that’s a hard pass for me…
Bernie, you touch upon an interesting point about punishment for crime. In our society, we do not let the victim of a crime (or the victim's family) decide the punishment for the perpetrator. The reasons for this are sound: some victims would be lenient, some would be harsh. That's why legislatures provide guidelines and judges have authority. It is precisely because every one of us would tend to view our own personal pain and loss as more significant than average that we take that decision out of the hands of the victim.
ReplyDeleteBernie, you touch upon an interesting point about punishment for crime. In our society, we do not let the victim of a crime (or the victim's family) decide the punishment for the perpetrator. The reasons for this are sound: some victims would be lenient, some would be harsh. That's why legislatures provide guidelines and judges have authority. It is precisely because every one of us would tend to view our own personal pain and loss as more significant than average that we take that decision out of the hands of the victim.
ReplyDelete"That's why legislatures provide guidelines and judges have authority."
ReplyDeleteThe decision of death is left to a jury, not a judge, believe it or not.
Correct me if I'm wrong . Does the judge on his own in the appeal process have the power to vacate the death sentence in exchange for a lesser penalty.
Delete"Lets review your logic: Abortion up to the momen of birth - OK. Fomenting WW3 and all its deaths - OK. Executions of the legally convicted - NO. Alrighty."
ReplyDeleteYou have me wrong.
(1) I personally oppose abortion but will not stop a woman from getting one if she thinks it is necessary for her health. I know that she is a human life, and she takes priority.
(2) I support self defense, both as an individual and as a country. If one country invades another, that country has the right to defend itself. This is not fomenting WW3, it is actually deterring further aggression. Under your thinking, it would be pretty easy for China and Russia to gobble up the rest of the globe.
(3) Finally, because I believe all human life has dignity, I do not believe in the ultimate sanction of death. As Shapiro observes, this sanction is both fallible and irreversible.
Would have been nice for those who voted for him to know this at election time.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to keep up with the entire platform when you're trying to vote sane over crazy
Delete98% of abortions are convenience. Your I'm personally opposed stance is intellectually dishonest. But you brother has told you that. Nobody is invading the US, but you're pouring hundreds of millions into someone else's conflict. Last time we all checked. Russia couldn't even take a small piece of land bordering its country. We should be terrified. You're correct on the death penalty, which makes your other two stances ridiculous. You don't give a shit about life. You wish to choose who gets to live and not. Now, tell us what Christianity means? WTF.
ReplyDeleteno person has the moral right to end another person's life. This is a barbaric practice, and the U.S. is alone among western nations in its continued use.
ReplyDeleteUnless it is an infant
DeleteOnce again people don't understand the reasons for sentences in our criminal justice system. I know it's been years since I went to college but the main reason for sentences and imprisonment was always supposed to be an detergent. People or should I say citizen of this state and country should be deterred to commit a crime because of the punishment that would be imposed. But with the way our criminal justice system is run today with plea bargaining and dropping charges. Or with our judges and politicians making decisions based on potential vetos. It has ruined our criminal justice system. Working in the criminal justice system i see it all the time. I'll plead guilty to this if you drop the gun charge. I'll plead guilty if you take the death penalty off the table.
ReplyDeletePoliticians will stand up there saying its the right of a person to kill for this but not this if it doesn't fit their parties views for votes.
But with plea bargaining and politicians we put the carriage in front of the horse. We turned the system backwards.
If a clock goes backwards it reads time just not the right time.
I guess it's okay to put guns in the hands of the insane so they can kill our school children but it's not okay to make people pay for their senseless crimes. LETS D-NUT the bastards so they can't pass their genes on to another generation. Legal castration for rape including a penis ectomy.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWhat's intellectually dishonest is the assumption that 98% of all abortions are convenience. What's intellectually dishonest is the assumption that a fetus inside the womb is already a sentient, fully conscious, human being. My view is both intellectually honest and shared by most people.
As a pregnancy develops, my concerns about the life of the baby make me want to place limits on abortions, unless medical professionals and the mother consider it necessary. I have no desire to add to the stress of what is essentially a medical decision with preconceived notions about when a baby actually becomes a baby.
This my friend, is a perfect post.
DeleteLOOK. I'm a male not a female and all I have to say is ABORTIONS saved my ass more than once.
ReplyDeleteDon't knock it until you walked a mile in our shoes.
Hang the sobs - quit wasting my tax dollars
ReplyDeleteFor all the "Pro-Life Christians" here calling for continuing the death penalty or calling for public executions. A reminder "thou shalt not kill" Is one of your commandments from God. You can't be against abortion and for the death penalty and call yourself Pro-Life. Jesus (your supposed savior) Was completely nonviolent, "Turn the other cheek" “'Put your sword back in its place,' Jesus said to him, 'for all who draw the sword will die by the sword'”
ReplyDeleteYou all show you're hypocrisy. Call yourself Conservatives, Republicans, etc. But don't call yourselves "Pro-Life" And definitely don't call yourselves "Christians"
"Once again people don't understand the reasons for sentences in our criminal justice system. I know it's been years since I went to college but the main reason for sentences and imprisonment was always supposed to be an detergent. "
ReplyDeleteI think you mean deterrent. There are several goals in a sentence: deterrence, punitive, rehabilitation and incapacitation.
The studies show that the death penalty has no deterrent effect. Obviously, it's pointless to rehabilitate someone and then give him a lethal injection. It does serve punitive and incapacitation roles. I feel that we as a society shuld be beyond the need to see death as a sanction.
At 1:18, you have to remember a child in womb did nothing to merit termination. A convicted killer is not the same as a blameless child.
ReplyDeleteFalse equivalency. There’s no such thing as a child in a womb. It’s called a fetus. And most sane people do not support late stage abortions unless the mothers health is affected. Stop pushing this BS right wing propaganda because you all support a right to life, until birth. Then conservatives offer NO support when they actually have a child that needs to be cared for. Fuck em then, right? Send him to foster care! Y’all are just too dumb.
DeleteNo it isn’t, carjacking, murderers should be executed on pay Tv by firing squad. Pay per view to offset costs. Punks that don’t have any regard for your life at a gas station or ATM should be publicly executed on in view of paid internet or TV. This would set an example to the next generation of thugs . There is an inherent personal resources to stay alive, maybe a detourent can’t spell .if I was a bad guy and thought I’d get a firing squad after i carjacked and killed the owner - a citizen not armed ,payed taxes ,had 3 daughters , put braces on his kids ,teeth and then sent them to college and paid for this. And the state will kill me - maybe I’d stay to theft at corner store. You voted for what you did that read this. Me personally , I’d have firing squad for dangerous hijacker’s, gangs and unsurprised politicians.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is they won't stop there. Once the death penalty is abolished Life in prison without parole will be next. State Senator Sharif Street already has a Bill written abolishing life in prison without parole. His Bill as written makes the penalty 15 to Life! So, you kill my kid at 20, you're out at 35. I don't think so! I'll kill the little bastard myself! I'll go upstate to lift weights, run on the track, watch cable TV in my cell, go to school in the program services building, play hoop in the gym. What's going to happen is we are going to have people start taking the law into their own hands if perpetrators aren't held responsible for societies most heinous crimes like Murder, Rape, Armed Robbery, and child molestation, where pedophiles and pediphilia are now being downplayed by not using such words in the system and replacing them with "minor attracted people" what a bunch of crap!
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't give me the you don't know what your talking about prison is so rough talk, I spent the better part of my career in two different state prisons in PA. It ain't the Ritz, but you get to have a life, play sports, cards, watch movies, go to school, all while your victim is pushing up daisies. Streets Bill SB942 by the way.
Well the timing couldn't be more perfect, with the merciless gunning down of Temple Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald. His wife said the litte punk who did it should be allowed to breathe. I agree. I have mixed feelings about the death penalty, but perhaps it should be left on the books for our most heinous crimes where guilt is indisputable.
ReplyDeleteThere were 18 executions in this country last year.
ReplyDeleteThere were over 800,000 abortions in that same period; over 63,000,000 since 1973 alone.
The Christians, Jews, and Muslims that I know don’t recognize a moral equivalency between 18 executed murderers and rapists and 800,000 aborted unborn babies.
If it makes YOU feel more godly via your support for murderers and rapists, and lack thereof for unborn children, then say it that way.
Say “I support the life of convicted murders and the death of unborn children”. Say it loud and proud so those who know you can see how morally bereft you truly are.
You put these murderers and rapists in jail for life and then if there is a war you ship them to Russia so they can serve in Putin's army.
ReplyDelete"Correct me if I'm wrong . Does the judge on his own in the appeal process have the power to vacate the death sentence in exchange for a lesser penalty."
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed to say I don't know. I will find out.
Sure the guy who killed the temple cop shot him in the face after about6 shots to the body. keep him alive for 60, y2ars at 50000 a year don't worry shapiro can kill a lot more the unborn in that time.
ReplyDelete