State Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), chairman and longtime member of the Judiciary Committee, has introduced a resolution to create a bipartisan commission to find financial and statistical data to prove whether the death penalty is worth keeping.
Yet that debate may ignore the larger reality: Juries, not just in Pennsylvania but nationwide, seem increasingly reluctant to sentence people to death.
The one Philadelphian sentenced to death in 2010 was Laquaille Bryant, now 29, whom a Common Pleas Court jury condemned in the 2008 contract killings of Chante Wright, 23, a protected witness and Bryant's childhood friend, and Octavia Green, also 23, a friend of Wright's who happened to be present.
Arguably more notable were cases in which juries spared killers' lives:
Mustafa Ali, convicted of killing two Loomis security guards in 2007 as they serviced an ATM in Northeast Philadelphia.
Eric DeShann Floyd and Levon T. Warner, convicted in the 2008 killing of Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, shot while chasing them from a Port Richmond bank robbery.
Rasheed Scrugs, convicted of killing Officer John Pawlowski in a 2009 standoff at Broad Street and Olney Avenue.
"Justice is not served," Kimmy Pawlowski said in November after a city jury spared her husband's killer. "They should throw out the death penalty."
Bookman said he believed jurors were starting to accept two facts: Executing an innocent person can happen, and a life term in Pennsylvania means life without parole.
"We've seen so many mistakes over the years," Bookman said, referring to DNA testing and other advances.
National polls have consistently found that about 61 percent of respondents say they support the death penalty for people convicted of murder.
But the support falls off sharply when respondents are asked to choose between death or life in prison with no chance of parole.
Another reason, say defense attorneys, is that juries never get to hear mitigating evidence about a killer's life and background until the trial's penalty phase.
Deputy District Attorney Edward McCann, a city homicide prosecutor for more than 25 years, said he thought "there is still significant support for capital punishment."
Nevertheless, McCann said he believed his office now sought death in far fewer cases - well below 10 percent of the 300 to 400 murder cases seen each year.
And, he added, that's proper: "It should be reserved for those crimes where you have strong evidence and the defendant is the worst of the worst. I think it should be difficult."
Contact staff writer Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985 or jslobodzian@phillynews.com.
