Lifers' commutation bids stalled
Two Graterford inmates must wait until an appeal of a June ruling is decided.
HARRISBURG - Two Graterford Prison inmates who have won plaudits for their decades-long efforts to reduce prison violence and counsel troubled youths will have to wait to hear whether their life sentences will be commuted.
The inmates, convicted Philadelphia murderers Tyrone Werts and William Fultz, were the first lifers to go before the state Board of Pardons since a federal judge decided that thousands of Pennsylvania inmates sentenced to life should have an easier path toward clemency.
U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo issued the ruling June 11 in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a 1997 state constitutional amendment that toughened commutation standards for lifers. The pardons board has appealed the ruling, leading to yesterday's vote to delay a clemency decision for Werts and Fultz until the appeal is decided.
The inmates' supporters, who had anticipated that the board would vote to recommend commutation to the governor, said they were stunned and disappointed.
"This is heartbreaking. This is rough. I can't believe it," said the Rev. Paul Werts, who presented his brother's case.
The 1997 amendment requires that inmates sentenced to life must receive a unanimous vote of the five-member pardons board before the governor may consider their commutation request. Before then, only a majority vote was needed.
Caputo ruled that the pardons board may not apply the tougher 1997 standard to inmates who committed their crimes before 1997. The decision - the latest ruling in the Pennsylvania Prison Society's 12-year-old lawsuit - could affect more than 3,000 of the state's 4,868 lifers.
The pardons board has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn the lower court ruling. The board asked Caputo to stay his decision while the appeal is heard, but Caputo did not act on the request in time for the hearing.
Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati, the pardon board's chairman, said yesterday that the board had little choice but to delay decisions on Werts and Fultz.
"We're not clear if we need three votes or a unanimous vote in order to pardon these two lifers. And to take a vote that may conflict with a court ruling weeks down the road, I think, would be inappropriate," he said.
Supporters of the amendment say the murderers who make up Pennsylvania's lifer population should face a high hurdle to freedom. Michael Piecuch, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said clemency is "not a right. It's not an entitlement."
Werts, 57, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1975 for his role in a slaying during a robbery at a speakeasy. Fultz, also 57, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1975 in the fatal shooting of a teenager. Neither was the triggerman, and both rejected plea deals that would have gotten them out of prison decades ago.
Werts and Fultz are considered model inmates at Graterford, where they have counseled at-risk teenagers and led efforts to reduce recidivism rates. Werts once prevented the rape of a prison teacher, while Fultz risked his life to deliver medicine to a prison staffer during a 1981 hostage crisis at Graterford.
Calling Werts and Fultz "two remarkable men," board member Russell A. Walsh nevertheless recommended that the board postpone its decision.
The vote was unanimous.