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For Immediate Release
September 27, 2011
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Committee Approves White's Capital
Punishment Bill
Prohibits execution of persons with mental retardation, as
determined by pretrial hearing.
Harrisburg – The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved and sent to the
full Senate legislation sponsored by Sen. Mary Jo White (R-21) that establishes a
pretrial procedure to determine if a defendant in a capital penalty trial is a
person with mental retardation.
A version of
Senate Bill 397 has passed the Senate in three different legislative
sessions, but has yet to receive final passage.
"It passed the full Senate by votes of 45-2, 45-3 and 48-1, so it's pretty
overwhelming that this has strong bipartisan support," said White. "I'm willing
to try it one more time."
Senator White has introduced the measures since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in 2002 that applying the death penalty to persons with mental retardation is
unconstitutional. The court left it up to states to determine how to implement
the decision.
Under Senate Bill 397, counsel for a defendant in a capital case can request
a hearing prior to trial to determine if the defendant is not eligible for the
death penalty due to mental retardation. The burden of proof would be on the
defendant. If the trial judge finds for the defense, the trial would proceed as
a noncapital trial.
The bill also provides a similar procedure for a defendant already sentenced
to death with appeals pending. The bill's definition of "a person with mental
retardation" is based on one used by the American Association of Mental
Retardation: an individual who has a mental disability which was present before
the age of 18 and characterized by significant limitations in intellectual
functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social and
practical adaptive skills.
"The question of how and when courts should determine mental retardation is a
serious one, and I appreciate the need to debate it," said White. "While these
cases are rare, the time has come to give guidance to our courts, and the
commonsense approach is to have a pretrial hearing, rather than go through the
expense and trauma of a capital trial and then determine it's not a capital case
at all."
CONTACT:
Leigh Ramsey
(717) 787-9684 | 
