Nearly two decades after the 1988 rob­bery and mur­der of James Scanlon, his fam­i­ly now says that a sen­tence of life with­out parole for his killer — Ronald Rompilla — will end years of emo­tion­al strain result­ing from the death penal­ty and will help them to start the heal­ing process. ​“It’s time to start remem­ber­ing my dad for the good per­son he was and not always affil­i­at­ing it with Ronald Rompilla and the death penal­ty. … (I)t was time. I did­n’t think going after it again would be good for us as a fam­i­ly. A life sen­tence is as much clo­sure as we can hope for,” said Timothy Scanlon, James’ son.

Rompilla orig­i­nal­ly received a death sen­tence for the bru­tal crime, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacat­ed it in 2005, find­ing that his attor­neys failed to prop­er­ly research his his­to­ry of child­hood neglect, alco­holism, and men­tal retar­da­tion. In its 5 – 4 deci­sion, the Court told pros­e­cu­tors to either agree to a life term for Rompilla or con­vene a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing where a new jury could decide death or life. Scanlon’s fam­i­ly made the final deci­sion to seek a life sen­tence in exchange for Rompilla’s agree­ment to waive all appeal rights in any court. ​“Basically it was our deci­sion not to pro­ceed with the death penal­ty again. … (M)y fam­i­ly has been through this for 20 years. We did­n’t want to go through anoth­er appeals process for anoth­er 20 years,” observed Timothy Scanlon, who voiced frus­tra­tion with the death penal­ty appeals process and said he still sup­ports the death penal­ty.

Rompilla received his life sen­tence plus con­sec­u­tive 10- to 20-year sen­tences for rob­bery and bur­glary dur­ing a sen­tenc­ing hear­ing on August 13. Stephen M. Van Natten, Lehigh County chief deputy dis­trict attor­ney, said the sen­tenc­ing agree­ment was reached based on the Scanlon’s fam­i­ly wish­es.

(The Morning Call, August 14, 2007). See Victims and Life Without Parole.

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