Is this justice?
Why aren’t convicted murderers being executed? Approximately 206 Pennsylvanians sentenced to death by state courts seem far more likely to die of natural causes, or even to win release on justice-destroying technicalities, than to pay the penalties imposed by courts for their crimes.
Why, indeed? Ask President Obama, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson. Those three, two Democrats and a Republican, are running for re-election.
Maybe they can explain why the federal government is spending more than $14 million a year of taxpayer money so that federally-paid attorneys from the Defender Association of Philadelphia can justify their jobs by filing appeal after appeal in hopes that far-fetched theories or nitpicking minutiae will spring their clients and justify their existence.
The feds are keeping the state from executing convicted killers. Who says so? Ron Castile, for one. He is the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. These attorneys, Castile claims, ply the courts and the press with “faux outrage” at the reality that their clients have been found guilty of murder.
These lawyers, said Castile, ply their trade while “accusing Pennsylvania courts of incompetence or laziness, their argument unencumbered by concerns for accuracy, honesty and candor.”
That’s a scathing indictment. Yet Obama, Casey, Thompson (and, yes, Pennsylvania’s other U.S. Senator, Pat Toomey, who isn’t running this year) keep voting for the federal money to pay these lawyers’ salaries and expenses — even though Pennsylvania’s counties are then saddled with huge unanticipated expenses in opposing their filings, arguing against their claims, and in effect re-trying case after case.
An Associated Press story shows prosecutors from across the state, Democrats and Republicans, joining with the state Supreme Court in saying that these smug federal lawyers do not play by accepted legal rules of fairness or ethics.
They appear to be unable to win their cases on the merits — they resort to tactics outlined in the AP story, including demanding that Castile recuse himself from cases.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell notes that he and five predecessors approved 386 death warrants; incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett has approved eight more, says AP reporter Mark Scolforo.
Yet the executions do not take place — because the federal government uses our tax money to pay lawyers to ensure, not that justice is done, but that justice is delayed and denied — your federal tax dollars at work.
Re-elect these incumbents? Well, if you are opposed to the death penalty, perhaps. But there are less expensive ways to attain that end.
If, however, you believe that after fair trials and reasonable numbers of appeals, executions should be carried out, ask these campaigning candidates why they shovel tax money into keeping that from happening.
(DuBois) Courier-Express