Stick with the Original Senate Bills

Beaver County Times, Wed., June 9, 2004, p.A6

http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11912397&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478566&rfi=8

The US Supreme Court excluded the mentally retarded from capital punishment three years ago. Pennsylvania has 26 mentally retarded people on Death Row.

Our Senate passed Senate Bill 26 in June 2003. This SB26 uses the standard professional criteria for mental retardation; an IQ of 70 or less, dysfunction in at least two identified skill areas, and (most importantly) diagnosis during childhood. This third element prevents retardation from being faked.

Under SB26, evidence of retardation would be provided to the judge in chambers. If the evidence were clear, the trial would proceed as a homicide case, at a cost of about $100,000. The accused could be sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

If evidence of retardation were not clear, the case would proceed as a death penalty case, costing about $800,000. The jury would decide if the accused was retarded. The accused could get either death, or life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The Senate also passed Senate Bill 97 to allow jurors to take notes during testimony. The House has put an amendment on this bill that alters the definition of mental retardation, and completely changes the procedure to identify it. The rider has nothing to do with the Bill.

Under the House amendment, every case would have to go through a complete $800,000 trial, and retardation could only be determined by a unanimous vote of the jury. The defendant would begin a $3.8 million appeal process.

This is ludicrous! The local county taxpayers would have to pay $800,000 for a trial, plus $3.8 million in appeals, for the kind of competency determination that judges routinely make in chambers.

Please call your Representative and ask them to defeat the amendment. Ask them to stick with SB26 and SB97 as originally passed by the Senate.

Roger Thomas

Harmony Township