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Homer Simpson is Catholic, Vatican paper declares | Reuters
Candidates in state's top races tout Roman Catholic faith
All four candidates in Pennsylvania’s two top races are Catholic. And all four play the Roman Catholic card, evoking throughout the campaign images of parochial education and tightly knit, blue-collar family upbringings.
Regardless of the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections, Pennsylvanians will elect a Catholic governor and a new Catholic U.S. senator.
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. is also Catholic, so voters might think a trifecta of piety is about to hold sway over politics.
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Candidates in state's top races tout Roman Catholic faith
IVEY DEJESUS, The Patriot-News
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Regardless of the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections, Pennsylvanians will elect a Catholic governor and a new Catholic U.S. senator.
Sen. Bob Casey Jr. is also Catholic, so voters might think a trifecta of piety is about to hold sway over politics.
All four candidates in Pennsylvania’s two top races are Catholic. And all four play the Roman Catholic card, evoking throughout the campaign images of parochial education and tightly knit, blue-collar family upbringings.
Joe Sestak, the Democratic senatorial nominee, likes to point out that his mother taught math for nearly 30 years at Cardinal O’Hara High School, where he graduated as the valedictorian.
And Republican U.S. Senate nominee Pat Toomey, a LaSalle Academy alumnus, maintained such an unwavering anti-abortion voting record that as a former Lehigh Valley congressman he earned a 100 percent rating from the Christian Coalition.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato touts an Italian-American childhood and Sunday attendance at St. Cyril’s Catholic Church.
Republican opponent Tom Corbett, a graduate of Saint Mary’s University Law School, gives warm send-offs to anti-abortion activists bound for the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
With more than 30 percent of the Pennsylvania electorate describing itself as Catholic, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, could Catholics play a pivotal role in the midterm elections?
“I bet if you asked voters, 90 percent couldn’t tell you they were all Catholic, which is a testament to what role this particular issue might play,” said Chris Borick, political science professor and analyst at Muhlenberg College in Allentown.
Catholic candidates don’t vote their Catholic conscience, “and Catholic voters often don’t either,” Borick said.
A recent poll out of Muhlenberg College found that Catholics didn’t break much differently from other voters across the state, finding that 49 percent indicated they would vote for Corbett over 37 percent for Onorato and 50 percent supported Toomey over 37 percent for Sestak.
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Defense wants DA's Office off case of killer who avoided paying $35,000 in fines and court costs
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Defense wants DA's Office off case of killer who avoided paying $35,000 in fines and court costs
A hearing to determine whether Frances A. Donohue -- convicted two years ago of killing her elderly mother-in-law -- is really indigent, partially blind and unable to drive did not happen Monday afternoon as scheduled.
Instead, Common Pleas Judge Michael E. Bortner heard arguments as to whether the York County District Attorney's Office should recuse itself from the woman's case.
Bortner said he will set a hearing date for the sentence-modification issue after he rules on whether the district attorney's office should be removed from the case.
On Monday, public defender George Margetas argued that because York County District Attorney Tom Kearney, prior to being elected, was Donohue's defense attorney at trial, his office now has
a conflict of interest.
The district attorney's office requested the reconsideration after Bortner, in September, allowed the 63-year-old Donohue be allowed to perform community service in lieu of paying her remaining $35,965.44 in court costs and fines.
He also granted a defense request that the rest of her probationary sentence -- which maxes out on April 10, 2011 -- be changed to non-reporting probation, so she wouldn't have to find rides to the county probation office. He made those rulings based on having found Donohue indigent and unable to drive.
Money at issue: The district attorney's office filed a motion asking Bortner to reconsider. Chief deputy prosecutor Tim Barker advised the judge that during Donohue's
incarceration, the Fawn Township home where she'd lived with her then-husband, William J. Donohue, and his 87-year-old mother, Bernadette "Bernice" Leiben was sold for $465,000.Part of that money went to pay off the mortgage and legal bills, Barker said.
But $180,000 was transferred to Frances Donohue's former best friend, who kept it for her, he said. Donohue said she didn't have access to the money, Barker said, but the former friend can provide a copy of a certified check she wrote to
Frances Donohue in September 2008.Barker told the judge that Frances Donohue received $120,000 of that money, while William Donohue received $60,000. Barker said since Frances Donohue is now claiming indigency, it must be determined what happened to the $120,000 she allegedly received.
Recusal issue: At Monday's hearing, Margetas told Bortner "there's a clear conflict of interest" in Kearney's office handling the case. He said he doesn't believe Kearney did anything wrong, but questioned whether Kearney has discussed the case with Barker and senior deputy prosecutor Justin Kobeski.
Kobeski argued there is no conflict, and therefore no reason for county prosecutors to recuse themselves, which would result in the case being
referred to the state Attorney General's Office.After the hearing, Kearney said he has never spoken to Barker or Kobeski about Frances Donohue's indigency issue. Barker said the same thing, both on the stand Monday and afterward.
But Margetas said just the appearance of a conflict of interest violates lawyers' code of conduct.
"I am shocked that they don't see it," he said of prosecutors. "It's a clear conflict."
The background: In September 2008, Frances Donohue was sentenced to two years of probation after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the 2004 death of Leiben.
Frances Donohue spent more than 17 months behind bars awaiting her first-degree murder trial. At the close of the two-week trial, jurors
acquitted her of murder but convicted her of manslaughter.William J. Donohue was acquitted of all charges he faced, including first- and third-degree murder.
At trial, Barker said the Donohues secluded Leiben in a second-floor room where she was confined to a bed and denied medical treatment. Leiben's body was covered in bedsores, several of which were rotted to the bone and were filled with maggots, according to court records.
Barker had argued the Donohues sold Leiben's assets and allowed her to die so they could keep the cash.
-- Reach Elizabeth Evans at levans@yorkdispatch.com, 505-5429 or twitter.com/ydcrimetime.
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