NORRISTOWN >> Saying they “keep dangerous criminals off the streets,” district attorneys from southeastern Pennsylvania joined forces Friday to call for legislators to restore mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenders.
“For years, mandatory minimum sentencing worked to get and keep dangerous criminals off the street,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said during a news conference at which he was flanked by law enforcement officials and prosecutors from Delaware, Chester, Berks and Bucks counties. “Then in 2015 Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down some of our mandatories, which has severely hampered law enforcement’s ability to reduce crime and keep our community safe and to be able to take the most dangerous criminals and keep them incarcerated for an appropriate length of time.”
Authorities said crimes that no longer carry mandatory minimum sentences include committing a crime of violence with a firearm, raping a child, assaulting an elderly person, selling drugs while possessing a firearm and dealing large quantities of drugs.
The state Supreme Court ruled that for mandatory minimum sentences to be legal they require prosecutors to prove the elements triggering the sentences beyond a reasonable doubt, Steele explained. He added a bill sponsored by state Rep. Todd Stephens, R-51, who represents parts of Montgomery and Bucks counties, fixes that loophole and would restore mandatory minimum sentences for violent offenders.
That proposal, House Bill 741, cleared the state House Judiciary Committee this week and is headed to a vote by the entire House the week of April 3.
“It’s a very important issue to law enforcement. We need the legislature to move on this,” Steele said.
Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said the mandatory sentences prosecutors support are meant to incarcerate offenders who a jury determines “are a danger to society and a threat to public safety.”
“Until House Bill 741 is enacted, they can all receive, and some have received across southeastern Pennsylvania, generously light sentences,” Whelan said.
Whelan cited several Delaware County statistics including, in 2016, 120 people were shot in Chester and 26 were murdered. So far in 2017, Whelan said, 20 people have been shot on Chester streets and nine have been murdered as a result of gun violence.
“These are dangerous, seriously violent criminals that prey on the residents of Delaware County and prey on the residents of southeastern Pennsylvania. We need to have mandatory minimum sentences in order to protect the people of southeastern Pennsylvania. We need the legislation re-enacted and we need to protect our families,” Whelan said.
Stephens said while the bill restores the mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes, it would not restore mandatories for certain low-level drug offenses and actually reduces some mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana and cocaine.
“These drug mandatories do not target addicts. We in the General Assembly believe very strongly that we need to do more in terms of drug treatment, that we need to provide more help for those who are suffering with the disease of addiction,” Stephens explained. “These mandatories are focused on those who prey on addicts by continually providing them with the poison that is killing them on our streets every single day. We’ve been very careful to try to focus our energy and our efforts in this bill on the areas that will make the biggest impact on the safety of the streets of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, working with the district attorneys association and the other law enforcement agencies.
“This is critical legislation. It is critical to give these tools back to our prosecutors so that they can work to keep us safe on the streets of Pennsylvania,” added Stephens, a former prosecutor in Montgomery County.
Some opponents of mandatory sentences have said they take discretion away from judges at sentencing time and increase prison populations and costs.
“Should we be looking at lower costs at the expense of safety? We suggest that’s not something that we should be willing to do. So we need these mandatory minimums restored for the safety of our communities,” Steele said.
In addition to Steele and Whelan, the news conference was attended by Bucks County Chief of Prosecution Dan Sweeney, Berks County Chief Deputy Jon Kurland and Chester County Assistant District Attorneys Megan King and Emily Provencher.
