Attorney Says State Supreme Court Ruling In Death Penalty Case Has Broad Implications

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A veteran Philadelphia civil rights attorney says a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on the death penalty has broad implications for use of such a punishment in the near future.

Attorney David Rudovksy, president of the board of trustees for the Defenders Association of Philadelphia, says the high court unanimously rejected arguments that the governor's reprieves of death sentences were only temporary.

"What the court said was, that historically, that's not right back to England and over 200 years in Pennsylvania the power of reprieve is quite broad and they unanimously, this was a unanimous court, upheld the governor's power to issue reprieves."

Rudovsky says, in essence, the ruling supports the governor's moratorium on executions.

He says it also gives a legislative group studying the issue of fairness in how the death penalty is being applied in Pennsylvania time to complete its work.