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Greenleaf Sets Judiciary Committee Hearing on Innocence
Commission, Presentation by Sex Offender Management Team
HARRISBURG -- Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Stewart J. Greenleaf has announced that the
committee will conduct a public hearing on Monday, January 30 at 10 a.m. in
Room 8EB of the State Capitol East Wing on Senate Bill 1069, the proposal
for a Pennsylvania Innocence Commission.
Among the witnesses will be
Steve Saloom of The Innocence Project, a program that began in 1992 at the
Benjamin Cardozo Law School in New York City to utilize post-conviction DNA
tests to help exonerate wrongfully convicted inmates. Among others scheduled to
testify are exonerated former Pennsylvania death row inmate Nicholas Yarris, who
will present testimony to the committee electronically from his home in London;
Thomas Doswell, a western Pennsylvania man exonerated by DNA testing last year
after serving 19 years in prison; and Duquesne University School of Law
Professor John Rago, an innocence commission proponent.
Greenleaf said that the goal
of the legislation, which is modeled upon innocence commissions in several other
states, is to study the causes of wrongful convictions and provide
recommendations to remedy factors leading to such convictions.
Greenleaf also announced
that on Tuesday, January 31, the Senate Judiciary Committee will host a
public presentation from the Pennsylvania Sex Offender Management Team (PSOMT),
a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency group created at the request of the
Governor's Office to develop a statewide comprehensive containment plan for sex
offenders. The presentation will take place immediately following a brief
regular meeting of the committee. The committee meeting is set for 11:30
a.m. in Room 8EB of the State Capitol East Wing.
The PSOMT will be
represented at the meeting by Diane Dombach, Executive Director of the State
Sexual Offenders Assessment Board; Mark H. Bergstrom, Executive Director of the
Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing; and Lauren Taylor, Director of the Office
of Legislative Affairs and Communications at the State Board of Probation and
Parole.
Greenleaf said that the
presentation will mark the beginning of the committee's discussion of proposed
sexual offender legislation.
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