On January 17, Delaware Governor Jack Markell com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Robert Gattis (pic­tured) to life with­out parole, cit­ing the defen­dan­t’s trou­bled child­hood. Gattis was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on January 20. By a 4 – 1 vote, the Delaware Board of Pardons had rec­om­mend­ed spar­ing Gattis’s life, cit­ing evi­dence from Gattis’s child­hood that indi­cat­ed severe phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, and sex­u­al abuse by fam­i­ly mem­bers. In grant­i­ng clemen­cy, Gov. Markell stat­ed: ​“Even if one were to dis­count cer­tain of the alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al abuse recent­ly alleged by Mr. Gattis (as the Board did), the fact remains that Mr. Gattis’s fam­i­ly back­ground is among the most trou­bling I have encoun­tered… My deci­sion is among the most dif­fi­cult I have had to make in all my years in pub­lic ser­vice. But in light of the Board’s unprece­dent­ed deci­sion and the rea­sons set forth above, I believe it is the cor­rect one under the cir­cum­stances.” As a con­di­tion of clemen­cy, Gattis must agree not to chal­lenge his con­vic­tion or sen­tence and to not request a further commutation.

(S. O’Sullivan, ​“Markell spares Gattis the death penal­ty,” Delaware News-Journal, January 17, 2012). Read Statement from Governor Jack Markell. Read Statement from Board of Pardons. See Clemency and Life Without Parole.

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