It should not have been a surprise to anyone. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, upon the election of the George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, and criminal-excusing defense attorney Larry Krasner to become District Attorney of the City of Brotherly Love, said, “It’s time to end the death penalty…mass incarceration … cash bail.” He has also stated that he has been opposed to capital punishment since 1984.
Why, then, is anyone acting shocked that Mr Krasner and his minions are not going to go for a death sentence against Miles Pfeffer, the teenaged punk who murdered Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald?
Philly prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against a Bucks County man accused of killing a Temple police officer
The family of Christopher Fitzgerald said they were devastated by the decision, and District Attorney Larry Krasner’s refusal to meet with them personally to discuss his decision.
by Vinny Vella | Tuesday, July 10, 2024 | 11:51 AM EDT
Miles Pfeffer after being apprehended, with a “What the f(ornicate) did I do?” look on his face.
Prosecutors in Philadelphia announced Wednesday morning that they will not be seeking the death penalty against Miles Pfeffer, a Bucks County man charged with first-degree murder in the death of Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald last year.In response, Fitzgerald’s family — who have long advocated for the death penalty to be sought against the 19-year-old — delivered a harsh rebuke against District Attorney Larry Krasner, saying he has “tipped the scales of justice one-way.”
Fitzgerald’s father, Joel, said in a statement that “instead of rewriting an already flawed script on crime and punishment, [Krasner] has allowed hubris and an intense disdain for law enforcement officers to cloud his judgement.
“Krasner is unable to divorce himself from years as a defense attorney,” he added.
Mr Krasner does not want to divorce himself from his defense mouthpiece legacy. He is doing that which he said he’d do when he ran for office.
Officer Fitzgerald’s family were “devastated” by the decision, according to the Inquirer article’s subtitle.
But here’s the part I do not understand. Sgt Marc Fusetti reported that Mr Krasner said, at his weekly press conference over a year ago that ‘it could take up to a year to decide if the death penalty would be appropriate’ in this case. And the Inky reported that Mr Krasner refused to meet with the family personally to discuss his decision. Mr Krasner campaigned as an opponent of capital punishment, had said he would never seek it, yet it took over sixteen months to come to and announce this decision?
Is there anyone who knows anything about Philly who believes that Mr Krasner hadn’t taken this decision from the very beginning?
Fitzgerald’s family said they were notified of Krasner’s decision by Joanne Pescatore, chief of homicide, late Tuesday, hours before the deadline to notify Judge Barbara A. McDermott.
The family condemned Krasner for not allowing them to speak to him directly to appeal his decision.
Dustin Slaughter, a spokesperson for Krasner, said the decision not to pursue the death penalty was “consistent with his oath to seek justice and uphold the law.” That decision, Slaughter said, was made with input from Fitzgerald’s family and legal experts.
Does anyone here believe that? I certainly don’t!
“The members of the DAO committee that considers possible death penalty matters include attorneys with a cumulative total of hundreds of years of homicide and other criminal trial and appeal experience,” Slaughter said. “They reviewed all aspects of the case itself and all obtainable information on the defendant prior to making their recommendations to DA Krasner, who made the final determination.”
At a hearing Wednesday morning, Pescatore said she had filed formal notice of the decision not to purse the death penalty at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Pescatore, in response to a question from McDermott, said there have not been negotiations with Pfeffer’s attorneys about a plea deal.
That decision, she said, would be up to Krasner.
As it always has been. The obvious question is: why did Mr Krasner and his minions wait until the last minute to make the decision public? The District Attorney was simply being a coward on this, inflicting the false hope on the Fitzgerald family that justice would be served by executing Officer Fitzgerald’s killer. The DA could have announced from the beginning that the death penalty was off the table, as everyone knew it was.
From Chapter 18 §2502.
Joseph Marrone, a lawyer for the Fitzgerald family, said Wednesday that the death penalty is warranted, given Pfeffer’s actions.
Mr Pfeffer’s crime clearly falls under both the First and Second Degree definitions under Pennsylvania Title 18 §2502. He was caught on tape standing over and deliberately shooting Officer Fitzgerald, after the officer was already down and wounded. Subsection (d) defines “Perpetration of a felony” as:
The act of the defendant in engaging in or being an accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing, or attempting to commit robbery, rape, or deviate sexual intercourse by force or threat of force, arson, burglary or kidnapping.
Mr Pfeffer was fleeing the scene when Officer Fitzgerald was able to catch him on foot — the officer was an avid runner, while the punk spent a lot of time in front of vidiot games — which means that Second Degree Murder also fits.
Under Title 18 §1102(a), the penalty for First Degree Murder is death or life imprisonment; subsection (b) fixes the punishment as up to life imprisonment.
But then there’s Third Degree Murder, which, under subsection (c) has a maximum penalty of forty years. Under Title 18 §2503, Voluntary Manslaughter, which would not fit the crime, if a First Degree Felony, the punishment for which, under Title 18 §106(b)(2) is a prison term which can be greater than ten years, and is normally capped at twenty years. There are a lot of people concerned that the District Attorney will come up with some lenient plea bargain deal which will allow Mr Pfeffer to one day walk free. If he is actually the killer — of which there is no doubt, but he has not yet been convicted — Mr Pfeffer should not be released from prison until the day that Officer Fitzgerald comes back to life.
Let me be clear here: I am and have been unalterably opposed to capital punishment, but let’s tell the truth here: even if you support capital punishment, in Pennsylvania it’s useless in reality. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-capital punishment organization, there have been only three executions in the Keystone State since the restoration of capital punishment in 1974.
The last one was on July 6, 1999, 25 years ago.
Governor Tom Corbett (R-PA) signed at least 48 death warrants during his four years in office, 2011 through 2014, but not a single condemned man was executed; all were delayed by the slow crawl of the appeals process. Upon succeeding Governor Corbett, Tom Wolf, a Democrat, declared a moratorium on executions; since the Governor must sign a death warrant for an execution to proceed, that stopped all executions in Pennsylvania during Mr Wolf’s eight miserable years in office. Upon Josh Shapiro, another Democrat, taking office on January 17, 2023, he announced that he would continue the moratorium.
But whether the Governor supported or opposed capital punishment does not seem to have mattered: no one was executed.
The only three executions occurred between 1995 and 1999, when Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) was in office. But if you look at the chart above carefully, you’ll see that all three men executed were “volunteers,” whom the Death Penalty Information Center defines as “individuals who waived at least part of their ordinary appeals or who terminated proceedings that would have entitled them to additional process prior to their execution.”
In other words, no one has been executed against his will in Pennsylvania since the restoration of capital punishment under Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976).
So, what’s the purpose of sentencing a man to death when everyone knows it won’t be carried out? It basically serves a few purposes:
- It helps prosecutors maintain a “tough on crime” reputation, though that’s not something which Mr Krasner wants;
- It’s a way of the judge and jury and the public saying, “We’re really, really appalled at what you did,” to the criminal and the public; and
- It gets the prisoner locked up under the special, more restrictive conditions on death row, rather than him being in ‘general population.’
It’s better to sentence Mr Pfeffer to life without the possibility of parole rather than set up a situation in which he has dozens and dozens of appeals, drawing out any possible execution for decades, costing the Commonwealth untold thousands of dollars in additional expenses, and bringing Mr Pfeffer a little more publicity every time his appeal goes to court. Realistically, it’s better to just let him languish in prison for the rest of his miserable life, as forgotten by almost everyone as he can be.
And the added costs of death row confinement are just another burden placed on the taxpayers.
We should just tell the truth, to ourselves as well as everyone else: the death penalty serves no actual purpose of justice in Pennsylvania. Those men condemned serve decades in prison, and then die in jail . . . of something other than execution.