Pardon request snagged by amendment question

Another Molly Maguire, executed in 1862, was pardoned in 1979.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A request for a posthumous pardon on behalf of a man hanged more than a century ago for the murder of a coal executive has stalled amid a fight over whether the decision must be unanimous.
Under a 1997 amendment to the state constitution, the state Pardons Board must vote unanimously to lessen a sentence of death or of life in prison. There is one vacancy on the five-member pardons board.
In March, U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo ruled that the amendment could not be applied to people sentenced before 1997. The state is appealing. The board, therefore, says it won't consider such cases until the issue is decided.
"It's obvious that there's a major issue now. Since that decision came down, there's a question as to how many votes are required," board secretary John Heaton said.
What's behind this
The delay affects the pardon request by a descendant of John "Yellow Jack" Donahoe, a suspected member of the Molly Maguires, who was convicted in the 1871 killing of Morgan Powell, an assistant superintendent of the Lehigh & amp; Wilkes-Barre Coal Co.
Donahoe argued that he did not know Powell and had no reason to kill him, but he was linked to Mollies -- the 19th century secret society and labor-rights group -- and convicted. His great-great-grandaughter says he did not get a fair trial.
In 1979, then-Gov. Milton J. Shapp pardoned John J. "Black Jack" Kehoe, a reputed Molly Maguire executed for the 1862 killing of mine foreman Frank W.S. Langdon in Carbon County.
The pending legal case also affects Tyrone Werts, who has been incarcerated for robbery and murder since June 1975 and filed for a pardon in February.
In recent years, Werts has been counseling young people at risk of going to prison in an effort to prevent them from turning to lives of crime.
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