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Officer Down: Police Officer Patrick McDonald
Thousands mourn Philadelphia officer
By Andrew Maykuth and Mario F. Cattabiani
Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Responding to mounting criticism of the judicial system after a paroled felon killed a Philadelphia police officer, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell yesterday ordered a halt to the release of parolees until an independent expert can conduct “a top-to-bottom review” of how the state releases violent offenders.
The assessment will be conducted by John S. Goldkamp, chairman of the Temple University Department of Criminal Justice, who Rendell tapped to review a system that each month paroles about 1,000 inmates out of a prison population of about 47,000.
The move came on the eve of today’s funeral of Police Officer Patrick McDonald, 30, who was killed last Tuesday by Daniel Giddings, a recently paroled violent criminal.
In May, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski was gunned down after he intercepted three men - all parolees with histories of violent crime - who had just robbed a bank.
“Heartbreaking losses such as these have shed light on the need to thoroughly review the process by which Pennsylvania paroles violent offenders,” Rendell said in a letter to Goldkamp. “Therefore, I am asking you to review the way in which these two cases were managed by the Department of Corrections and the Board of Probation and Parole in order to minimize the likelihood that these kinds of scenarios will be repeated.”
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and representatives of the Fraternal Order of Police yesterday also called for the moratorium until the Governor’s Office or the legislature conducts a review of the state Board of Probation and Parole.
“Our police officers are angry and they’re outraged,” John J. McNesby, president of the FOP’s Lodge 5, said at a news conference attended by about 200 uniformed officers and police supporters.
McNesby called for an “all-out assault” on parole board members who prematurely release violent offenders and on judges who he said go easy on offenders charged with assaulting police officers. Lenient judges, McNesby said, would be targeted in the press, on billboards and in advertisements.
“We’re out there putting our lives on the line,” McNesby said. “What we didn’t sign up for was to be executed. What we didn’t sign up for was not to have the backing of the Philadelphia judicial system.”
Ramsey, angry about the loss of three officers since he took over the department at the beginning of the year, said he was weary of hearing concerns about overcrowded prisons, and urged public officials to build more jails.
“I’m not trying to minimize the complexity of crime and the social ills and all that stuff,” Ramsey said. “But the bottom line is: How many times do you have to give a person an opportunity, to find out they ain’t going to be rehabilitated?”
Rendell’s order to halt the releases of parolees would not affect prisoners who have completed their sentences.
Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said the order affects both the Corrections Department and the parole board, an independent state agency whose nine board members are all Rendell appointees with experience in corrections and law enforcement.
Ardo said it was unclear how long the review would take to complete.
“I can tell you it will be faster than most people expect,” he said. “It is our intention to have a thorough examination of the issues, however long that takes. We want it done quickly, but it is far more important to have it done correctly.”
Goldkamp, nationally recognized as an expert on incarceration, did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages yesterday. His research over a quarter-century has focused on, among other things, bail and pre-trial release.
Susan McNaughton, spokeswoman for the Corrections Department, said prison officials would follow Rendell’s directive and would monitor the prison population during the moratorium on paroles. “We’re going to cooperate with the review,” she said.
Sherry Tate, the spokeswoman for the parole board, did not returned telephone messages or e-mail questions yesterday.
The outrage from law-enforcement officials has been directed at the judiciary as well as the parole board for a range of perceived offenses.
Ramsey and McNesby singled out Municipal Court Judge Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde, who last week downgraded a felony aggravated-assault charge against a 19-year-old man accused of punching a police officer in the throat.
Frazier-Lyde reportedly made dismissive comments about crimes against police at the time she downgraded the charges, and then was upset with police when her comments were published in Friday’s Philadelphia Daily News.
Ramsey joined the call to target elected judges such as Frazier-Lyde when they come before voters for retention.
“If judges are elected, maybe people need to know what goes on inside those courtrooms,” said Ramsey, “and when it’s time to cast that ballot, actually who you’re voting for in terms of what they bring to the table.”
But most of the rage was directed at the officials who sentenced Giddings in 2000 and then released him about a month before he killed McDonald.
Giddings was released Aug. 18 after serving 10 years of a six-to-12-year sentence for aggravated assault and robbery - he shot a man in the knees in 1998 after robbing him of $100.
Within a week of his release, Giddings skipped out of a South Philadelphia halfway house and vowed to family members that he would not go back to jail.
Police said Giddings shot McDonald numerous times as he lay wounded on a North Philadelphia street, then shot and wounded another officer who responded to the scene. That officer returned fire, killing Giddings.
Police were upset that Giddings was released before completing all 12 years of his sentence, although state officials noted that he served four years longer than his minimum sentence because of misbehavior in prison.
Parole board Chairwoman Catherine C. McVey said last week that Giddings was released on the recommendation of corrections officials, who noted that Giddings’ behavior had improved since 2006, the last time he was turned down for parole.
District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham and police have also faulted retired Common Pleas Court Judge Lynn B. Hamlin, the judge who in 2000 gave Giddings the six-to-12-year mandatory minimum sentence despite recommendations from prosecutors for a stiffer penalty. Giddings had amassed a juvenile record of violent crime since he was 10, including assaults against the staff of juvenile detention facilities.
Hamlin, who retired in 2002, did not return a phone call yesterday to her Haverford home.
According to court records, Hamlin sentenced Giddings to the minimum sentence - despite her misgivings - because he had gotten good grades while obtaining his high school diploma while incarcerated.
C. Darnell Jones II, the president judge head of the First Judicial District, yesterday cautioned about blaming judges for decisions often beyond their control.
“Blaming the judiciary is not an appropriate response to this type of terrible criminal conduct,” Jones said in a statement. “The judges of the Philadelphia court system are unwavering in their commitment to justly adhere to the rule of law in addressing all legal issues brought before them.”
McDonald is scheduled to be buried today at Resurrection Cemetery in Bensalem following a noon Funeral Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.
Ramsey encouraged the public to attend the Mass and to line the streets of the funeral procession to Resurrection Cemetery in a show of support.
“I think it’s important for officers to see community support,” said Ramsey. “Everybody has to stand up against this foolishness that’s going on.”
Copyright 2008 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC