The Commutation Now Campaign is a Pennsylvania statewide initiative made up of long time advocates, family members, formerly incarcerated people and loved ones of people sentenced to die in prison.
[ Press the audio sound signal to hear video. Its on the bottom left, a series of vertical lines]
In Pennsylvania, there are over 5,000 people who have been sentenced to a Death by Incarceration sentence, also known as life without parole. Many of these individuals–our friends and loved ones, as well as people we have never met–have done incredible work to transform themselves and their lives.
The above PSA features 5 people who were commuted in Pennsylvania over the last four years: Felix Rosado, Tina Brosius, Henrietta Harris, Avis Lee and Robert Faruq Wideman.
The Board of Pardons is the only avenue for second chances for people serving these sentences and other inhumanely long “virtual life” sentences. Unfortunately, in recent years the Board has been failing their duty to the public and virtually closing off this avenue for review. This is the only means that people serving these sentences have for appealing for their freedom, and the Board has virtually ground to a halt.
Shapiro claimed that as governor he would create “a criminal justice system that both keeps communities safe and enforces the law in a fair and consistent manner.” But under Shapiro, ⅛ of the number of commutations have been processed than the number that Governor Wolf signed in the same amount of time. Even that benchmark set by Wolf is insufficient. In fact, since the 1970s, in line with the rise of mass incarceration, the functioning of the Board has been on the decline.
We are fighting to bring this issue to the light of day, so that the Board of Pardons remembers that ultimately they are a body that is meant to serve the interests of the public, not the political ambitions of their members or the Governor.
With your help, we can raise awareness about this issue and get the Board of Pardons back on track. Whether your work focuses on reforms to the criminal legal system or not, we all benefit when our Governor and bodies like the Board of Pardons remember that they work for US!
Read more about our issue – Commutation in the News
Contact: commutationnow[@] gmail.com
Commutation in PA Now! 