Pennsylvania high court passes on death penalty review
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined a special petition to review the constitutionality of the death penalty but says it will still consider the fairness of individual cases.
The decision Friday comes after the court heard arguments this month from critics who call the punishment cruel and arbitrary in the way it’s applied to poor and black defendants. Public defender Shawn Nolan represents the two men whose petitions were at the heart of the petition.
Nolan said he is disappointed, given “overwhelming evidence that Pennsylvania’s death penalty system is broken.” But his office will continue to litigate the issue in state courts, he said.
Statewide, just under half of the current death row inmates in Pennsylvania are black, compared with 11% of state residents.
The death penalty remains legal in 29 U.S. states, although four of those states, including Pennsylvania, have a moratorium on executions.
More than half of the 441 death sentences handed down since the death penalty was reinstated in the late 1970s have been deemed flawed and overturned, Assistant Federal Defender Timothy Kane said at the Sept. 11 hearing. Among the 155 from Philadelphia, the reversal rate is 72 percent.
“The reliability of the system as a whole is cruel, and the systemic problems affect every case,” Kane argued before the overflow crowd at Philadelphia City Hall.
Most of the time, the sentence or verdict was reversed on appeal because of the work of court-appointed lawyers working with limited public funds, he said.
Justice Debra Todd asked why the issue was urgent, given the moratorium on executions that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf imposed after taking office in 2015. A lawyer for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who opposed the petition, said it was not.
Shapiro’s office said that any amendments to the death penalty should be decided by the Legislature, which issued a troubling report on the issue last year.
“The questions the report raises are important, and should be thoroughly considered and resolved, by the General Assembly,” Shapiro’s office said in its brief.
However, Kane hoped the Supreme Court would step in given the lack of action by lawmakers.
The average appeal in Pennsylvania takes 17 years, straining the resources of the court system, critics said.
Five Democrats and two Republicans sit on the state Supreme Court.

The Latest: McConnell: If House acts, Senate must have trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and the House impeachment inquiry (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said months ago that if the House goes ahead and impeaches President Donald Trump, the Senate “has no choice” but to conduct a trial to determine whether the president is removed from office.
The Kentucky Republican told NPR that “if the House were to act, the Senate immediately goes into a trial.” McConnell made the comments long before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House would begin an impeachment inquiry into the president.
McConnell had not previously indicated whether the Senate would act on any articles of impeachment, though the Constitution anticipates that it would. It’s commonly assumed that the GOP-held chamber would acquit Trump just as Democrats held together in 1999 to deny the GOP House from winning a conviction of President Bill Clinton.
McConnell is among the few senators remaining in the chamber who participated in the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial.
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This item has been corrected to show that McConnell spoke to NPR months ago, not Friday.
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12:50 p.m.
As they begin an investigation into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, members of the House intelligence committee may be working through a two-week congressional recess that starts Friday.
Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat on the panel, said committee members are prepared to return. California Rep. Jackie Speier, also on the committee, said she’s already canceled some of her previous commitments.
The Democrats are seeking to keep momentum as the committee is suddenly at the center of an investigation that their caucus will use to inform impeachment proceedings. Members of the committee said they expect to eventually interview White House aides and others linked to a whistleblower complaint made public Thursday.
The complaint showed Trump repeatedly urging the Ukrainian president to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family.
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8:35 a.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is voicing concern over President Donald Trump’s comments that suggested retaliation against people who helped an intelligence whistleblower. The whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader is at the center of the House impeachment probe.
White House officials took extraordinary steps to “lock down” information Trump’s call, even moving the transcript to a secret computer system, according to the complaint.
Trump lashed out Thursday, saying whoever provided information to the whistleblower is “close to a spy.” Trump suggested that was treason, an act punishable by death.
Pelosi told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Friday she’s “concerned about some of the president’s comments about the whistleblower.”
She said the House panels conducting the impeachment probe will make sure there’s no retaliation against people who provided information.

Deer hunters are being warned to watch out for tuberculosis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning just ahead of deer hunting season which is starting across the country. The CDC believes a man who diagnosed with the disease in 2017 came into contact with a deer that had a bacteria and was spread to him, causing TB. Doctors say the bacteria was inhaled after the deer was killed. Hunters are advised to wear protective equipment while field-dressing.

Joe Biden, courting donors at a fundraiser in California on Thursday, began his remarks by reading directly from a whistleblower’s complaint that President Donald Trump sought foreign interference in the 2020 election. As Trump faces an impeachment inquiry over his demands that his Ukrainian counterpart investigate Biden, his top Democratic rival is striving to turn the growing political crisis to his advantage, raking in donations and taking to national television to make his case to voters that he is the Democrat best able to beat Trump next year. The controversy has allowed Biden to portray himself as Trump’s top target, bolstering his long-standing argument that he is the candidate the president fears most.

Vermont’s governor has become the first Republican chief executive to support impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump but cautions that he wants to know more before any further actions are taken. Gov. Phil Scott said at a news conference Thursday that he wasn’t surprised by the allegations that Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine’s president to “look into” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden because he’s “watched him over the years.”  Other moderate Republican governors have yet to weigh in on an impeachment inquiry. When pressed by reporters, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Wednesday he was withholding judgment. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan have yet to comment. Scott has been a frequent critic of the president.

State leaders are encouraging people convicted of non-violent marijuana-related crimes to apply for pardons. Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman announced earlier this week that the Board of Pardons is expediting the application process to be pardoned for marijuana-related charges. The decision comes after the call for legalization of recreational marijuana across the state which is being supported by Governor Wolf.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf believes he has the public’s support in backing plans to legalize recreational marijuana. The governor talked up plans to make pot legal yesterday during a visit to Monongahela. Wolf says the time is right to offer marijuana to all adults and to issue pardons to people who are in jail for possessing small amounts of the drug. Local police chiefs say legalization will allow them to focus on other crimes and more serious drug problems.

Midland Municipal Authority officials are having a forensic audit done on its finances. The move is being made in the wake of what the authority calls false rumors and incorrect assumption about the potential mismanagement of funds. At a council meeting earlier this month, some members floated the idea of dissolving the authority and expressed distrust toward its leaders.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh mom has been sentenced in the death of her toddler daughter, which authorities say was due to the narcotic fentanyl found in the child’s pink sippy cup. Jhenea Pratt was sentenced Wednesday to five to 10 years in state prison. The 24-year-old Pratt was convicted in June of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Two sippy cups were seized from Pratt’s apartment, one of which tested positive for fentanyl. Pratt said she had “no clue” how the drug ended up in the cup.

ELIZABETH, Pa. (AP) — PennDOT says the Elizabeth Bridge near Pittsburgh has been closed to traffic after a structural support bracket failed. The department released a statement saying the Route 51 bridge in Allegheny County is “indefinitely” closed as of 10 p.m. Thursday. Motorists will be detoured. Associated ramps at the bridge will remain open to traffic.