Court Opinion

ID: 9692979
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:14:53.380427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:38.634578
License: Public Domain

PELLEGRINI, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s holding that the ballot question passed by voters at the November 1997 election amending Article IV, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution (Amendment) was unconstitutional because it violated Article XI, Section 1 of the Constitution by containing more than one amendment in a single ballot question. I also disagree with its holding that the Amendment is null and void because the Attorney General’s “plain English statement” required by Section 201.1 of the Election Code,1 25 P.S. § 2621.1, was deficient.
The ballot question presented to the voters was:
Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require a unanimous recommendation of the Board of Pardons before the Governor can pardon or commute the sentence of an individual sentenced in a criminal ease to death or life imprisonment to require only a majority vote of the Senate to approve the Governor’s appointments to the Board, and to substitute a crime victim for an attorney and a corrections expert for a penologist as Board members?
The ballot question, if passed, would amend Article TV, Section 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution to read as follows:
Pardoning power; Board of Pardons.
(a) In all criminal cases except impeachment the Governor shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, to grant reprieves, commutation of sentences and pardons; but no pardon shall be granted, nor *637sentence commuted, except on the recommendation in writing of a majority of the Board of Pafdons, and in the case of a sentence of death or life imprisonment, on the unanimous recommendation in writing of the Board of Pardons, after full hearing in open session, upon due public notice. The recommendation, with the reasons therefor at length, shall be delivered to the Governor and a copy thereof shall be kept on file in the office of the Lieutenant Governor in a docket kept for that purpose.
(b) The Board of Pardons shall consist of the Lieutenant Governor who shall be chairman, the Attorney General and three members appointed by the Governor with the consent of [two-thirds or] a majority of the members elected to the Senate [as is specified by law] for terms of six years. The three members appointed by the Governor shall be residents of Pennsylvania [and shall be recognized leaders in their fields; one]. One shall be a [member of the bar,] crime victim; one a [penologist,] corrections expert; and a third a doctor of medicine, psychiatrist or psychologist. The board shall keep records of its actions, which shall at all times be open for public inspection.
Joint Resolution 1997-2 (additions are italicized; deletions are bracketed).
Petitioners contend that the ballot question violated Article XI, Section 1 of the Constitution which provides that “[w]hen two or more amendments shall be submitted they shall be voted upon separately.” They contend that it violated that provision because the ballot question, rather than submitting one question to the ballot, actually submits five questions which are:
1. A vote of the Board of Pardons to recommend clemency to the Governor for someone sentenced to life or death must be unanimous rather than by majority vote.
2. A nominee to the Board was to be confirmed by vote of a majority rather than two-thirds of the Senate.
3. Substitution of a “crime victim” rather than an attorney member of the Board.
4. Substitution of a corrections expert rather than a penologist member of the Board.
5. Deletion of the phrase “and shall be recognized leaders in their field” which phrase described the three members appointed by the Governor to the Board.
Agreeing with the Prison Society, the majority holds that each of those changes is a separate change, and because they were all submitted in the same ballot question, Article XI, Section l’s requirement that each amendment be submitted in a separate ballot question was violated making the proposed constitutional Amendment itself unconstitutional.
While inexplicably not relied on by the majority in deciding that the ballot question contained more than one amendment, I believe this case is controlled by our decision in Bergdoll v. Kane, 694 A.2d 1155 (Pa.Cmwlth. 1997),2 where this court struck down on the same basis a constitutional amendment affecting criminal defendants’ rights to confront witnesses and allowing the General Assembly to enact laws regarding the manner in which children may testify in criminal proceedings. For the same reason I dissented in that case, I dissent here. While there were many changes made by this Amendment, all of those changes directly relate to a single subject - the conduct of affairs at the Board of Pardons - with the object of making it more difficult for a defendant to obtain a pardon or parole. Because it relates to a single subject, I would find that the ballot question was proper and the Amendment constitutional.
The other reason that the majority strikes down the ballot question is that the Attorney General failed to comply with the provisions of Section 201.1 of the Election Code, 25 P.S. §2621.1, requiring that when a proposed constitutional amendment is published, that it be accompanied by a statement in plain English [prepared by the Attorney General] which indicates the purpose, limitations and effects of the ballot question on people of the Com*638monwealth. Pursuant to his statutory obligation, the Attorney General issued a statement explaining the proposed changes as follows:
The purpose of the ballot question is to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to add a provision concerning the recommendation that must be given by the Board of Pardons before the Governor can pardon or commute the sentence of an individual sentenced in a criminal case to death or life imprisonment and to change provisions regarding the process of appointing Board members and the composition of the Board membership.
The Pennsylvania Constitution now provides that in all criminal cases except impeachment, the Governor has the power to grant reprieves, commutation of sentences and párdons, but only on the recommendation in writing of a majority of the members of the Board of Pardons. The proposed amendment would require the unanimous recommendation of the Board before the Governor could pardon or commute the sentence of an individual sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The Constitution would continue to require only a majority vote of the Board to enable the Governor to grant a pardon or commute a sentence in a criminal case involving a sentence other than death or life imprisonment.
The Pennsylvania Constitution now provides that the members of the Board of Pardons are the Lieutenant Governor who is made Chairman, the Attorney General, and three members appointed by the Governor with the consent of two-thirds or a majority of the Pennsylvania Senate as provided by law. Of the three members appointed by the Governor, the Constitution now requires that one be an attorney, one be a penologist, and one be a doctor. The proposed amendment would eliminate the option of requiring the Governor’s appointments to be approved by two-thirds of the Senate, thus requiring appointments to be approved by only a majority of the Senate. The amendment would replace the attorney member of the Board with a crime victim member and would change the member described as a penologist to a member described as a corrections expert.
The effect of the ballot question would be to make it more difficult for an individual sentenced to death or life imprisonment to obtain a pardon or commutation of sentence, to ease the process for Senate approval of the Governor’s appointments to the Board of Pardons and to ensure that crime victims are represented on the Board.
I disagree with the majority that this statement does not adequately explain the proposed changes because it explains the purpose of the changes and the effect it would have on the ability of an individual to ascertain a pardon or commutation. Under the majority’s reasoning, what would be required to satisfy the provision of the Election Code would not be a plain English statement but a treatise explaining every possible consequence of the proposed amendment.
Even if I agreed with the majority that the Attorney General’s statement was deficient, I still would not strike down the Amendment. While the General Assembly may be able to enact laws that aid the voters in understanding the proposed Amendment, those additional requirements cannot effect the validity of the amendment once passed by the voters. The Pennsylvania Constitution proscribes the manner in which it is to be amended, and only a failure to follow those constitutional requirements can be the basis for finding that an amendment was improperly presented to the voters. Accordingly, once the amendment has passed, the Attorney General’s compliance or lack of compliance with that “plain English statement” required by the Election Code becomes a moot issue.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. Act of June 3, 1937, P.L. 1333, added by the Act of February 19, 1986, P.L. 29, as amended, 25 P.S.§§ 2600-3591.

. It does cite Bergdoll but only for the standard to grant a motion for judgment on the pleadings.