By George Anastasia
For Bigtrial.net
Will Kaboni Savage be the first defendant sentenced to death in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since the federal death sentence was reinstituted in 1988?
That's the question the anonymously chosen jury that convicted Savage of racketeering and murder two weeks ago will begin wrestling with today. The nine women and three men are expected to start their life or death deliberations later this morning after being instructed by Judge R. Barclay Surrick on the legal issues that apply in the capital murder case.
The only two options for the panel are death or life without parole. The jury, which heard arguments and testimony for five days during the penalty phase of the trial, must first unanimously decide that the death penalty is warranted. The panel must then vote unanimously to impose it.
One juror's reticence would automatically result in a life without parole sentence, a point that Savage's defense attorney William Purpura emphasized during his closing arguments yesterday. Purpura asked the panel to end the violence by choosing a life sentence for the convicted drug kingpin.
Federal prosecutor Steven Mellin, on the other hand, argued that a death sentence was the only way to insure that Savage would not try to reach out from prison to murder witnesses or their families.
Savage was convicted of 12 counts of murder-in-aid-of-racketeering during the 13-week trial. Eight of the 12 murders were linked to witness intimidation, including the 2004 firebombing of a row house in North Philadelphia in which two women and four children -- family members of a cooperating witness -- were killed.
Savage ordered the firebombing while in prison awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. He also ordered the murder of another witness while awaiting trial on a separate homicide case, according to trial testimony.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gallagher, another federal prosecutor in the case, had compared Savage to a "mass murderer" during the penalty phase of the trial. In fact, the 12 murders place Savage in the upper echelon of underworld gangsters in terms of murder convictions.
Mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, for example, was convicted in a federal racketeering case in 1988 that included nine murders and four attempted murders. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison. In 1995, mob boss John Stanfa was sentenced to five consecutive life terms after being convicted of racketeering charges that included five murders.
Neither Scarfo nor Stanfa faced a potential death sentence, but in recent years several drug kingpins have been tried in capital murder cases in the Eastern District (which includes Philadelphia and its surrounding counties).
In those cases, however, the juries opted to impose life without parole.
In 2010, Maurice Phillips, a major cocaine trafficker who generated millions of dollars in a drug network that stretched from Texas to New York, was convicted of ordering the murder of a woman witness who had begun cooperating with authorities. Phillips was sentenced to life without parole.
In another capital murder case, three members of the notorious Boyle Street Boys, a Chester drug gang, were convicted in a 2006 case that included four murders. One of the victims was a woman, the mother of two young children, who had made straw gun purchases for the gang but had then begun cooperating.
All three gang members were sentenced to life.
In all, according to statistics gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that tracks federal capital cases, there have been 69 defendants sentenced to death in since 1988. Three have been executed. The other defendants are either still appealing those sentences or have had those sentences overturned on appeal.
The only federal case in Pennsylvania came from the Middle District where David Paul Hammer was convicted of strangling to death his cellmate in the federal penitentiary at Allenwood. Hammer, a career offender from Oklahoma, serving a sentence of more than 100 years on an assortment of charges. He was sentenced to death, but has won an appeal overturning that sentence. The appeal has not yet been finalized.
George Anastasia can be contacted at George@bigtrial.net.
For Bigtrial.net
Will Kaboni Savage be the first defendant sentenced to death in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since the federal death sentence was reinstituted in 1988?
That's the question the anonymously chosen jury that convicted Savage of racketeering and murder two weeks ago will begin wrestling with today. The nine women and three men are expected to start their life or death deliberations later this morning after being instructed by Judge R. Barclay Surrick on the legal issues that apply in the capital murder case.
The only two options for the panel are death or life without parole. The jury, which heard arguments and testimony for five days during the penalty phase of the trial, must first unanimously decide that the death penalty is warranted. The panel must then vote unanimously to impose it.
One juror's reticence would automatically result in a life without parole sentence, a point that Savage's defense attorney William Purpura emphasized during his closing arguments yesterday. Purpura asked the panel to end the violence by choosing a life sentence for the convicted drug kingpin.
Federal prosecutor Steven Mellin, on the other hand, argued that a death sentence was the only way to insure that Savage would not try to reach out from prison to murder witnesses or their families.
Savage was convicted of 12 counts of murder-in-aid-of-racketeering during the 13-week trial. Eight of the 12 murders were linked to witness intimidation, including the 2004 firebombing of a row house in North Philadelphia in which two women and four children -- family members of a cooperating witness -- were killed.
Savage ordered the firebombing while in prison awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. He also ordered the murder of another witness while awaiting trial on a separate homicide case, according to trial testimony.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gallagher, another federal prosecutor in the case, had compared Savage to a "mass murderer" during the penalty phase of the trial. In fact, the 12 murders place Savage in the upper echelon of underworld gangsters in terms of murder convictions.
Mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, for example, was convicted in a federal racketeering case in 1988 that included nine murders and four attempted murders. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison. In 1995, mob boss John Stanfa was sentenced to five consecutive life terms after being convicted of racketeering charges that included five murders.
Neither Scarfo nor Stanfa faced a potential death sentence, but in recent years several drug kingpins have been tried in capital murder cases in the Eastern District (which includes Philadelphia and its surrounding counties).
In those cases, however, the juries opted to impose life without parole.
In 2010, Maurice Phillips, a major cocaine trafficker who generated millions of dollars in a drug network that stretched from Texas to New York, was convicted of ordering the murder of a woman witness who had begun cooperating with authorities. Phillips was sentenced to life without parole.
In another capital murder case, three members of the notorious Boyle Street Boys, a Chester drug gang, were convicted in a 2006 case that included four murders. One of the victims was a woman, the mother of two young children, who had made straw gun purchases for the gang but had then begun cooperating.
All three gang members were sentenced to life.
In all, according to statistics gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit organization that tracks federal capital cases, there have been 69 defendants sentenced to death in since 1988. Three have been executed. The other defendants are either still appealing those sentences or have had those sentences overturned on appeal.
The only federal case in Pennsylvania came from the Middle District where David Paul Hammer was convicted of strangling to death his cellmate in the federal penitentiary at Allenwood. Hammer, a career offender from Oklahoma, serving a sentence of more than 100 years on an assortment of charges. He was sentenced to death, but has won an appeal overturning that sentence. The appeal has not yet been finalized.
George Anastasia can be contacted at George@bigtrial.net.