In an unprecedented 4-1 decision announced Sunday, the Delaware Board of Pardons is recommending that the death sentence for convicted killer Robert A. Gattis be commuted to life in prison.
It will now be up to Gov. Jack Markell to decide if he will accept the board’s recommendation to spare Gattis’ life or if he will allow the execution of the 49-year-old by lethal injection to go forward as planned early Friday.
A life is literally in Governor Markell’s hands. He might not want this responsibility. But he asked for it, and now he has to decide. I now address the Governor directly….
Here is what we know. Robert Gattis is a murderer. But his trial was not complete. The judge and jury never heard mitigating evidence that could have had an affect on his sentencing: that Gattis suffered physical and sexual abuse as a child. As it was, the jury in the original trial did not vote unanimously for the Death Penalty. The vote was 10-2.
A question on my mind is why Mr. Gattis’ sentence has not been already commuted down to life in prison like Tom Capano’s was. In January 2006, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Capano’s conviction but remanded the case for sentencing because the death penalty was imposed by a non-unanimous jury verdict.
From the News Journal back in 2006:
In an opinion made public Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided that Capano’s death sentence was flawed under the Delaware Constitution based on a 2002 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The crux of the state’s ruling was that, to invoke the death penalty, the jury should have voted unanimously that Fahey’s murder was the result of premeditation and substantial planning. The jury only voted 11-1 in Capano’s penalty hearing.
Gattis’ sentencing was not unanimous. Why is he being treated differently than Tom Capano?
Governor Markell, treat them the same. Let Robert Gattis die in prison like Tom Capano did. His death may come sooner like Tom Capano’s, or it may take many more years. I know that I rest easy knowing that a killer is off the streets, that justice has been done, and that Mr. Gattis will spend the rest of his life in prison with the knowledge of why he is there.
…And I will rest easy knowing that the State of Delaware, my beloved home, did not kill him in my name in some misguided notion of revenge.
There is enough killing in this world, Governor Markell. Take this opportunity uniquely afforded to you as our Governor to spare one man’s life who would otherwise be just another killing.