The Associated Press Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in the state on Feb. 13, 2015.
The Associated Press Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in the state on Feb. 13, 2015.
Show Caption The Associated PressGov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in the state on Feb. 13, 2015.
UPDATED: August 25, 2021 at 8:15 a.m.Simply put, the heart of a much-awaited study that will help decide the future of the death penalty in Pennsylvania is a comparison of two sets of first-degree murder cases.
Dr. Jeffery T. Ulmer, associate head of Penn State University’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, said as much as he provided an update on researchers’ work on the study.
One set, he said, is cases in which people convicted of first-degree murder in Pennsylvania were sentenced to die. The other set, he said, is first-degree murder cases in which the defendant received life in prison even though the case was death penalty-eligible.
“In order to investigate whether there are inequalities in the administration of the death penalty, we need to compare cases,” Ulmer said.
In Pennsylvania’s bogged-down capital punishment system, hundreds of people have been sentenced to die, but no one has been executed in 16 years. Early this year, Gov. Tom Wolf enacted a de facto moratorium on the death penalty.
He vowed to issue a reprieve in every scheduled execution until he reviewed a report called for by the state Senate in December 2011. The work of the Penn State researchers is expected to be a crucial part of that report.
It is to be compiled by the Joint State Government Commission and is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
All told, university researchers have gathered data on about 1,400 cases in which there were convictions for first-degree murder, Ulmer said.
In most of those cases, he said, the prosecutor did not seek the death penalty.
The question of “When is the death penalty sought and when is it given?” is at the heart of the work, he said. It is being done for The Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness at the behest of the state Supreme Court and will be incorporated into the Joint State Government Commission report.
Among other things, the Interbranch Commission wanted to know whether members of minority groups received the death penalty in numbers disproportionate to their presence in the population. If that was found to be the case, Ulmer said, the commission wanted to know if there were legal explanations for the disparity.
Also working on the Penn State study are Dr. John Kramer, emeritus professor of sociology and criminology, and Dr. Gary Zajac, managing director of the university’s Justice Center for Research.
Members of their team visited 18 county courthouses across the state, including the one in Berks, to research death penalty cases.
Their efforts also included combing through hundreds of newspaper stories for information not included in court records.
Those stories included ones requested from the Reading Eagle pertaining to 10 different first-degree murder cases in Berks.
Contact Ford Turner: 610-371-5037 or fturner@readingeagle.com.
Gov. Tom Wolf, who placed a de facto moratorium on the death penalty early this year, plans to review the results of an ongoing study of Pennsylvania’s capital punishment system.
Part of that study will draw on research by a team at Penn State University that looked at thousands of first-degree murder cases, including many where defendants were sentenced to life in prison. At least 10 of those cases are from Berks.
Researchers asked the Reading Eagle to provide archived stories related to those cases:
Lionel A. Matthews: Matthews pleaded guilty in 2005 to the July 21, 2004, killing of Catonia Johnson, 26, along Plum Street in Reading.
David White: A jury in 2009 found White guilty of the murder of 19-year-old Devon Lonon at 12th and Muhlenberg streets earlier that year. A prosecutor said White and Lonon were members of rival factions of the Bloods street gang.
Karim Wright: A jury found Wright guilty in 2003 of the shooting death of Navarro Williams, 25, inside a club on Chestnut Street the previous year. Williams died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Raul Marquez: Marquez was convicted in 2009 in the Aug. 18, 2006, execution-style, drug-related killing of 19-year-old Terrell Little on South Ninth Street. Witnesses said Little was shot 14 times.
Tommy White: White was convicted in 2007 of the murder of Brian C. Crow. The 39-year-old Crow was stabbed 17 times inside his Green Street apartment on Feb. 9, 2006.
Joseph Eaddy: Eaddy was convicted in 2004 of killing his former girlfriend the previous year. Leidy Sheeder Bonanno was 21 and just starting a career as a nurse when she was strangled with a telephone cord inside her West Reading apartment.
Timothy W. Krajcir: Krajcir, a serial killer, pleaded guilty in 2008 to the rape and murder of 51-year-old Myrtle Rupp in 1979 in her Muhlenberg Township home. Judge Linda K.M. Ludgate sentenced Krajcir to life in prison via a closed-circuit television link to a maximum security prison in Illinois, where Krajcir was serving numerous consecutive life sentences for other murders.
Antonio Castro: Castro pleaded guilty in 2009 to the murder the previous year of Oscar Sanabria, 30. Sanabria’s partially burned body was found in a car in Reading. He had been shot to death.
Marcus L. Graham: Graham pleaded guilty in 2007 to the killing of 22-year-old Jonathan Yocum of Sinking Spring. Yocum was kidnapped and wrapped in cellophane and duct tape before being shot in the head. His body was found March 12, 2005, in a Wyomissing parking lot.
Jose Gonzalez: Gonzalez was convicted in 2005 in the murder of Hipolito “Polo” Sanabria, 43. Police said Gonzalez guarded the door in Sanabria’s North Ninth Street apartment while another man shot him three times on Oct. 6, 2001.
Source: Reading Eagle archives
