Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment Report and Supplemental Materials

• Executive Summary of the Pennsylvania Death Penalty Report
• Full Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment Report
• Errata Sheet for Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment Report
• Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment Guide
• Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assesment Team Biographies
• Fact Sheet: Problems with Pennsylvania's Death Penalty System and Recommendations for Reform
• Compliance Charts: Pennsylvania's Compliance with ABA Recommendations

Resources on the Administration of the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania

• Kimberly and Albrecht Powell, History & Statistics of the Death Penalty in PA

• Bruce A. Antkowiak, Five Hot Topics: Issues of Pending Concern in Pennsylvania's Appellate Courts, 42 Duq. L. Rev. 411 (2004)

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. John Dolenc, 152-AUG Pittsburgh Legal J. 196 (2004).

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Frederick Alan Vantassel, 152-MAR Pittsburgh Legal J. 57 (2004).

• Susan Phillips, Lethal Direction, Philadelphia City Paper, July 22, 2004.

• Tom Lowenstein, Snitch Work, Philadelphia City Paper, June 17, 2004.

• Jason Elliot Nard, Pennsylvania's Capital Statute: Does the Introduction of Victim Impact Evidence-Into the Evaluation of Mitigating and Aggravating Circumstances-at the Sentencing Hearing of a Murder Trial Introduce Unjust Prejudice Into the Imposition of the Death Penalty, 42 Duq. L. Rev. 825 (2004).

• Matthew G. Howells, Sattazahn V. Pennsylvania: Double Jeopardy and the Definition of "Acquittal" in Capital-Sentencing Proceedings, 38 U. Rich. L. Rev. 525 (2004).

• Sandra Schultz Newman et al., Capital Sentencing: The Effect Of Adding Aggravators to Death Penalty Statutes In Pennsylvania, 65 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 457 (2004).

• Wanda D. Foglia, They Know Not What They Do: Unguided and Misguided Discretion in Pennsylvania Capital Cases, 20 Just. Q. 187( 2003).

• Pennsylvania Death Penalty Debate, Mar. 5, 2003

• Priya Nath, Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania, 123 S. Ct. 732 (2003), 15 Cap. Def. J. 419 (2003).

• Pennsylvania Capital Case Summary of Grounds for Reversal, Defender Association of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Capital Representation Project, Aug. 27, 2003.

• James R. Franks, A State May, Consistent With the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, Seek the Death Penalty on Retrial Following a Jury Deadlock at the First Capital-Sentencing Proceeding And Resulting Default Sentence of Life Imprisonment: Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania, 42 Duq. L. Rev. 177 (2003).

• John M. Stevens, Waiver of Counsel in Pennsylvania: Constitutional Issues Facing Criminal Defendants, Counsel, and Courts, 12 Widener L.J. 29 (2003).

• Cindi Lash, DNA Exonerates Death Row Inmate, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 10, 2003.

• Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System.

• Charles I. Lugosi, Punishing the Factually Innocent: DNA, Habeas Corpus and Justice, 12 Geo. Mason U. Civ. Rts. L.J. 233 (2002).

• Louis F. D'Onofrio, A Deadly Constitutional Mistake: The General Admissibility of Victim Impact Evidence Under Pennsylvania's Death Penalty Statute-Commonwealth v. Means, 12 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 169 (2002).

• David C. Baldus et al, The Use of Peremptory Challenges in Capital Murder Trials: A Legal And Empirical Analysis, 3 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 3 (2001).

• James Liebman, Jeffrey Fagan, Valerie West, A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases State Report Card Pennsylvania, 1975-1995, 2000.

• Louis M. Natali, Jr., New Bars in Pennsylvania Capital Post-Conviction Law and their Implications for Federal Habeas Corpus Review, 73 Temp. L. Rev. 69 (2000).

• Thomas M. Place, The Claim is Cognizable But the Petition is Untimely: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Recent Collateral Relief Decisions, 10 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 49 (2000).

• Thomas L. Dybdahl, Grave Risk of Injustice: Pennsylvania's Vague "Grave Risk of Death" Aggravator in Capital Cases, 72 Temp. L. Rev. 1 (1999).

• Thomas G. Saylor, Post-Conviction Relief in Pennsylvania, 69 Penn. Bar Ass. Q. 1 (1998).

• Baldus, Woodworth, Zuckerman Weiner, Broffitt, Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era: An Empirical and Legal Overview, With Recent Findings from Philadelphia, 83 Cornell L. Rev. 1638 (1998).

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Series- Bill Moushey, Win At All Costs, Nov.-Dec. 1998
  From Beginning of Cases to End, Rule Changes Led to Misconduct, Nov. 22, 1998
  A Sting Gone Awry, Nov. 23, 1998
  Hiding the Facts, Nov. 24, 1998
  The Damage of Lies, Nov. 29, 1998
  Selling Lies, Nov. 30, 1998
  Switching Sides, Dec. 1, 1998
  When Safeguards Fail, Dec. 6, 1998
  Calculated Abuses, Dec. 7, 1998
  Wrath of Vengeance, Dec. 8, 1998
  Failing to Police their Own, Dec. 13, 1998

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Donald Scott Burke, 146-NOV Pittsburgh Legal J. 597 (1998).

• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Joseph Tibes Lee, 146-JUN Pittsburgh Legal J. 367 (1998).

• Stuart Ditzen et al., To Win, Limit Black Jurors, McMahon Said, and Some of McMahon's Tips for Rookie Prosecutors, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1997.

• Thomas M. Place, Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Under the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Relief Act, 69 Temple L. Rev. 1389 (1996).

• A Review of the Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) Public Defender Office, The Spangenberg Group, Nov. 1995.

• Bruce Ledewitz, Recent Developments in Pennsylvania Death Penalty Law, 33 Duq. L. Rev. 473 (1995).

• Scott D. Sherwood, Evidence-The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Defines the Standard of Admissibility for DNA Evidence at Trial-Commonwealth v. Crews, 640 A.2D 395, 68 Temp. L. Rev. 953 (1995).

• Louis S. Rulli, Foreward: Pennsylvania Legal Services At Risk, 68 Temp. L. Rev. 541 (1995).

• Barbara Margaret Farrell, Pennsylvania's Treatment of Children Who Commit Murder: Criminal Punishment Has No Replaced Parens Patriae, 98 Dick. L. Rev. 739 (1994).

• Marc Vernon Skyer, Criminal Procedure-Pennsylvania Expands Double Jeopardy Protection to Include Prosecutorial Overreaching Directed at Securing a Conviction-Commonwealth v. Smith, 615 A.2D 321 (PA. 1992), 67 Temp. L. Rev. 825 (1994).

• Leonard Sosnov, Criminal Procedure Rights Under the Pennsylvania Constitution: Examining the Present and Exploring the Future, 3 Widener J. Pub. L. 217 (1993).

• Michael Kroll, Justice on the Cheap: The Philadelphia Story, Death Penalty Information Center, May 1992

• Redric N. Tulsky and Roxanne Patel, The Former City Judge who Defended 34 Murder Suspects in a Year, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 14, 1992.

• Kenneth S. Kilimnik, Recusal Standards for Judges in Pennsylvania: Cause for Concern, 36 Vill. L. Rev. 713 (1991)

• Jocelyn March Dreier, Constitutional Law-Eighth Amendment-The Pennsylvania Death Penalty Statute, Which Mandates a Sentence of Death Upon a Finding of One Statutory Aggravating Circumstance and No Mitigating Circumstances, Does Not Violate the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Blystone v. Pennsylvania 110 S. Ct. 1078 (1990), 68 U. Det. L. Rev. 565 (1991).

• Rhonda G. Hartman, Critiquing Pennsylvania's Comparative Proportionality Review in Capital Cases, 52 Univ. Pitt. L. Rev. 871 (1991).

• Commitment to Farview: Incompetency to Stand Trial in Pennsylvania, 117 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1164 (1969).

• Legal Aid to Indigent Criminal Defendants in Philadelphia and New Jersey, 107 U. Pa. L. Rev. 812 (1959).