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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20150&cosponId=20506
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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: June 30, 2016 04:26 PM
From: Representative Julie Harhart and Rep. Karen Boback
To: All House members
Subject: "Jessica's Law"
 
Please join me and Representative Karen Boback in sponsoring “Jessica’s Law”, legislation amending the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to include the desecration or mutilation of a corpse as an aggravating circumstance that may qualify a defendant for the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

In 2014, Jessica Padgett was brutally shot in the back of her head by her step-father, Gregory Graf. He then sexually abused her corpse while two video cameras were recording his actions. This heinous crime happened a very short distance from my district office in Northampton. Please read about this terrible crime at:

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/northampton-county/index.ssf/2015/11/draft_stepdaughter_killer_conv.html

It only took six minutes for the jury to convict Graf of murder. The judge immediately sentenced him to the maximum punishment according to Pennsylvania law - life in prison without the possibility of parole. To our shock, even as horrific as his actions were, the act of mutilating or defiling her corpse was not included as an aggravating factor that may have qualified him for the death penalty.

Jessica’s Law would change that by adding the desecration or mutilation of a corpse to the list of aggravating factors that may qualify a defendant for the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

We hope you will join us by co-sponsoring “Jessica’s Law”.



Introduced as HB2284