In a unan­i­mous deci­sion issued December 21, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld Gov. Tom Wolf’s (pic­tured) impo­si­tion of a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while he awaits the results of a leg­isla­tive com­mis­sion’s report on Pennsylvania’s death penal­ty. On February 13, 2015, Wolf issued a tem­po­rary reprieve to Terrance Williams and announced that he would put all exe­cu­tions on hold. At that time, he said that Pennsylvania’s ​“cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem has sig­nif­i­cant and wide­ly rec­og­nized defects” and was ​“inef­fec­tive, unjust, and expen­sive.” Prosecutors chal­lenged the gov­er­nor’s author­i­ty to issue reprieves of indef­i­nite dura­tion that were based upon sys­temic con­cerns. The Court dis­agreed. Writing for the Court, Justice Max Baer said, ​“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.” Williams’ case is also pend­ing before the U.S. Supreme Court on a sep­a­rate issue — whether for­mer Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille should have recused him­self from hear­ing the appeal of a low­er court deci­sion revers­ing Williams’ death sen­tence because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office while Castille was District Attorney. Castille had per­son­al­ly autho­rized Williams’ pros­e­cu­tion in his role as D.A. and had cam­paigned for judge based upon his record of hav­ing sent more than 40 defen­dants to death row. The state appeals court over­turned the tri­al court’s deci­sion and rein­stat­ed Williams’ death sen­tence. Two judi­cial groups and six legal orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the American Bar Association and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, recent­ly filed ami­cus briefs sup­port­ing Williams’ posi­tion that Castille should have recused him­self and that his par­tic­i­pa­tion taint­ed the court’s deci­sion to return Williams to death row.

(N. Brambila, ​“State high court upholds Gov. Wolf’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions,” The Reading Eagle, December 21, 2015; C. McDaniel, ​“Court Backs Pennsylvania Governor’s Suspension Of Death Penalty,” BuzzFeed News, December 21, 2015; L. McLellan, ​“Amici Critical of Castille in Case by Death-Row Inmate,” Legal Intelligencer, December 9, 2015.) Read the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Terrance Williams. See Death Penalty in Flux and U.S. Supreme Court.

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