News Release
For Immediate Release
June 12, 2001
Bills on Death Penalty Defense, DNA, and Leased Cars Move
Forward
HARRISBURG –Bills sponsored by Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf to cover new leased vehicles under the state auto lemon law, provide inmates with DNA tests, and establish a resource center for defense attorneys in capital cases were moved forward today in Senate committee action.
The Senate Appropriations Committee amended, approved and sent to the Senate floor two Greenleaf measures, Senate Bill 286, and Senate Bill 589.
Senate Bill 286 would provide coverage under the 1984 lemon law for leased vehicles. Currently the commonwealth is one of just five states that don’t provide the lemon law consumer protections to those who lease new vehicles. Leased vehicles comprise at least 35 percent of all new car transactions in the state. Greenleaf said his amendment pared down his comprehensive lemon law reform bill to focus on the leased car issue exclusively. As originally drafted, Senate Bill 286 also contained title branding provisions on resold "lemon" cars to make buyers aware they are purchasing a car returned to the manufacturer because of defects. "Implementation of the title branding provisions has been a matter of debate and this was holding up the bill. My goal is to obtain lemon law coverage for those who lease new cars in Pennsylvania. I have decided to deal with the title branding issue separately," Greenleaf said.
Senate Bill 589 would offer DNA testing for eligible prison inmates seeking to prove their innocence, and for death row inmates trying to show innocence of the crime or of an aggravating circumstance that contributed to the sentence of capital punishment. Under the bill, death row inmates would be able to seek DNA testing also for the purpose of demonstrating a mitigating circumstance that might reduce a sentence from capital punishment to life.
The measure limits eligibility to those who were tried and incarcerated before the existence of DNA technology, or in cases in which the lack of testing resulted from the failure of a defense counsel to seek it or the failure of the state to pay for testing on behalf of an indigent defendant. Additionally, an applicant for testing must present a prima facie case that the identity of or the participation in the crime by the defendant was at issue in his conviction, and that the DNA testing would establish the applicant’s actual innocence. Also, the evidence to be tested must be found by the court to have been subject to a chain of custody sufficient to establish that it was not subject to alteration.
Before moving the bill to the Senate floor, the Appropriations Committee added a technical amendment clarifying that the State Police will handle DNA testing for indigent inmates.
In Senate Judiciary Committee action, Senate Bill 869, known as the Capital Representation Resource Center Act, received committee approval. The Greenleaf bill, which grew out of a public hearing on death penalty issues last year, would provide more resources for defense of capital cases. Under the proposed resource center, capital cases would be tracked from the trial preparation to post conviction proceedings in order to ensure that those charged with capital crimes receive competent legal representation.. Additionally, the resource center, through recruitment and screening, would establish a panel of attorneys qualified and available to represent defendants in capital cases, and would assist in providing investigators and experts in capital case trials, appeals, and post conviction proceedings.
