A Flagrant Conflict of Interest

That's the title of Lincoln Caplan's New York Times Taking Note blog post.

Last Friday, a state trial judge stayed Pennsylvania’s execution of Terrance Williams—scheduled for this Wednesday—and ordered a new sentencing hearing. In response to a motion from Philadelphia’s district attorney, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court could overturn the stay and order, putting the execution back on schedule. Yet the court’s chief justice has no business judging this case.

Chief Justice Ronald Castille has a classic and flagrant conflict of interest: he is passing judgment on a prosecution that he approved and oversaw, and on a trial judge’s ruling that strongly censured that prosecution. He was the Philadelphia district attorney in 1986 and accountable for the serious misconduct that led to Mr. Williams’ death sentence.

The current Williams defense team filed motions on Monday for the chief justice to either recuse himself, or refer the matter to his fellow justices, so he was not deciding his own case. But, within hours, Mr. Castille turned down both motions.

And:

When Mr. Castille was elected chief justice in 1993 on a law-and-order platform, his campaign boasted that he had put 45 criminals on death row, including Mr. Williams. He has called previous requests that he recuse himself “ethical lapses”—of the lawyers making the requests. And he has otherwise displayed untenable judicial ethics, as The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, receiving many gifts of dinners, event tickets, golf outings and plane rides, some from people with cases decided by his court.

With the decision not to recuse himself in this case, Mr. Castille has underscored his obtuseness about what basic fairness requires. He has diminished his position, the court he sits on and the rule of law in Pennsylvania. Even if the court upholds the trial court’s stay and order, as the merits dictate, its ruling will be badly tainted. And if it does not, the ruling will simply not be trustworthy.

"Philly DA wants to file new brief in death appeal," is an updated AP article, via the Erie Times-News.

For now, Williams has a stay of his scheduled execution. A state judge vacated his death sentence Friday and ordered a new sentencing hearing after finding that prosecutors hid evidence at his 1986 trial.

But Philadelphia prosecutors appealed to the state's high court to overturn that ruling and reinstate the death penalty in time to execute Williams today. Williams' death warrant expires at midnight, and prosecutors asked on Tuesday to respond to the objection filed by his lawyers.

The state Supreme Court could grant District Attorney Seth Williams' appeal, reject it or allow him to file another legal brief. Seth Williams is no relation to Terry Williams.

A second AP report examines Pennsylvania's execution protocol, "Condemned Killer Could Still Be Executed Wednesday."  It's via WCAU-TV.

If Terrance Williams is executed, it will be an event strictly supervised by the state.

For now, the 46-year-old Williams has a stay of his scheduled execution, which would be the first in Pennsylvania in more than a decade. A state judge has vacated his death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing after finding last week that prosecutors hid evidence at his 1986 trial.
 
But Philadelphia prosecutors have appealed to the state's high court to overturn that ruling and reinstate the death penalty in time to execute Williams on Wednesday. His death warrant expires at midnight.
 
If he is executed, his death would be carried out according to a bureaucratic script under the steely supervision of the state government.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, "Execution’s stay won’t open ‘floodgates’ in Pennsylvania," by Adam Brandolph.

A Philadelphia judge’s decision last week that brought the state back from the brink of its first execution in more than a decade likely won’t have much of an impact on the remaining 199 inmates sitting on death row, legal observers say.

“Every one of these decisions is unique and idiosyncratic. Every one has his or her own circumstances, different backgrounds, different crimes,” said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff. “This won’t be precedential, and I don’t think the floodgates will open.”

Judge M. Teresa Sarmina on Friday stayed the execution of Terrance Williams, 46, who was scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday for the death of Amos Norwood, 56, a chemist and church volunteer.

Sarmina said prosecutors suppressed evidence that Norwood had sexually abused Williams as a teenager, a mitigating circumstance never heard by the jury that sentenced Williams to death in 1987.

“This case is a perfect storm of what can go wrong with the death penalty,” said Marc Bookman, executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that helps lawyers whose clients face the death penalty. “It’s really a learning moment for Pennsylvania.”

Bookman said Williams’ case may deter juries from imposing the death penalty.

“It’s inconceivable to me that this debacle would encourage our community to seek more executions. I think a lot of people learned from this all the mistakes that can happen, and it shows how frail and full of errors the death penalty can be.”

Earlier coverage of Terry Williams' case begins at the link.