Time Limit Imposed on Death Sentence

A judge in Newark, N.J., who thinks inmates unfairly spend too much time on death row has ordered a possible reprieve for a man who gunned down a pizza deliveryman. Thomas Koskovich’s death sentence would be commuted to life in prison if he is still alive five years from now, Judge Reginald Stanton ordered. “The process has become unacceptably cruel to defendants who spend long years under sentence of death while the judicial system conducts seemingly interminable proceedings which remind many observers of a cruelly whimsical cat toying with a mouse,” Stanton said. Defense attorneys say that, to their knowledge, such an order has never been issued at the trial court level. Prosecutors say Stanton exceeded his authority. The verdict and Stanton’s condition are subject to automatic review, as are all death penalty sentences. Koskovich, 21, was sentenced to die for killing Jeremy Giordano in 1997.