Members of Let’s Get Free joined with the Commutation Now Campaign —a revitalized PA statewide initiative made up of long-time advocates, family members, formerly incarcerated people and loved ones of people sentenced to die in prison.
Our goal is to continue to apply pressure to Governor Shapiro and the Board of Pardons to grant commutations and shine a light on this process that could be an amazing portal home for so many life and long sentenced people in PA.
From 2019 through the end of the Wolf administration, over 53 people with life and long term ‘virtual life’ sentences won their freedom at the Board of Pardons. That averages out to a little over 13 people per year. In the two years of the Shapiro administration in January 2023, only 7 people have had their sentences commuted. The Board of Pardons (BOP) needs to get back on track.
Among the BOP’s responsibilities is to recommend rehabilitated people serving life without parole (otherwise known as Death By Incarceration, or DBI) and other inhumanely long “virtual life” sentences to the governor for commutation. From 1971-78, 251 people, or 33% of the average population of people serving DBI, had their sentences commuted by the governor. In the following decades, commutations essentially ground to a halt, meaning that the increasingly massive number of people sentenced to DBI had nowhere to turn. Under the Wolf administration, that started to change—Gov. Wolf signed off on 53 commutation applications between 2019-22. But despite his campaign promises to support “common sense, comprehensive criminal justice reform,” Gov. Shapiro has only signed off on seven applications since taking office. He’s letting the Board of Pardons once again become a “Board of Perpetual Punishment.”
In May of 2024, the Governor’s Office of General Counsel took the unprecedented action of remanding the case of Gail Stallworth back to the Board of Pardons for a revote after the Board of Pardons unanimously recommended her for commutation. Two board members switched their vote, closing the door on her chances for freedom. Since the Governor’s lawyers initiated this action after negative victim’s input surfaced, the only way to interpret this cruel and unprecedented move is that Governor Shapiro did not want to directly deny Gail Stallworth, so he had his lawyers send her case back to the Board of Pardons to do the dirty work of voting her down.
On September 13, the Commutation Now! Campaign launched across the state with in-person public screenings of the PA Board of Pardons Commutation Hearings in CityHall (Philadelphia) and Market Square (Pittsburgh). These traditionally in-person hearings now take place over zoom. The goal was to put the public back in public hearings, demand reform to the commutation process and support 2nd chances for people with excessive sentences. A petition was started in conjuction with the hearings and to date, over 800 people have signed in support.
The commutation process is merciless, cruel, and arbitrary. It plays politics with people’s lives, and it doesn’t offer a meaningful chance for people who have put in the hard work of self-transformation to finally come home.
Pennsylvanians deserve better!
Check out our updated Commutation Support Kit, Endorse the Campaign and Sign the Petition.
