Delaware pardons board show clemency to death row prisoner

Panel of five swayed by Robert Gattis's claims that he had been viciously abused by family members as a child
Robert Gattis
Delaware's board of pardons has recommended clemency for Robert Gattis, sentenced to death for murdering his girlfriend in 1992. Photograph: AP

The Delaware board of pardons has for the first time in the modern era shown clemency to a death row prisoner, recommending that the death sentence for murderer Robert Gattis be commuted to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.

The decision makes Delaware the latest state to feel the winds of change sweeping across America against capital punishment. The state's board of pardons has traditionally been hardline on the subject but, in explaining its decision to recommend clemency for Gattis, the panel of five revealed multiple doubts about the appropriateness of the ultimate punishment.

The board said it was swayed by mitigating facts that only emerged recently relating to horrifying abuse that was inflicted on Gattis as a child by relatives. In his clemency petition, Gattis said he had been viciously beaten by his father and stepfather and sexually molested by several family members.

"We accept that if even half of what has been submitted about Mr. Gattis's childhood is true, he was victimised physically, emotionally and sexually by family members who owed him a duty of care," the board said, adding this was more than sufficient grounds for considering clemency.

Gattis, 49, was sentenced to death in 1992 for killing his girlfriend Shirley Slay in a fit of violent jealousy. The board noted that Gattis had complained to doctors of mental illness and violent impulses a year before the murder.

In one of the most revealing points, the board said that one of its five members had questioned the justification of the death sentence generally in cases like Gattis's where the prisoner had no prospect of being released and was no longer considered a danger. "When the taking of life is not required as a matter of self defence, that member believes that one cannot ethically or morally take that act."

Members of the board were impressed by the argument put by Gattis's lawyers that other prisoners had been shown much more leniency in their sentencing in separate cases of violent domestic violence. "The sentencing disparity in these cases has become too great and offends a moral sense of proportionality," they found.

Delaware joins several other states which have recently shown a more liberal drift in attitudes towards the death sentence. Last November, John Kitzhaber, governor of Oregon, put a stop to executions during his time in office, while Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York have all abandoned the practice over the past four years.

However, Delaware is by no means abolitionist in its thinking. The board's recommendation, by four votes to one, now gives governor Jack Markell of Delaware the final say over the fate of Gattis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Friday.

It is unlikely that Markell will discount the view of the board, although in theory he could overrule it and press ahead with the execution.

In making its recommendation for clemency, the board made clear that Gattis would spend the rest of his life in prison. In order to get off death row, he would have to drop all further appeals for commutation or pardon.