LEFT WAITING

PA Prisoner Dies of COVID-19 While on Commutation List

Bruce Norris had received a recommendation for a commutation of his life sentence in mid-December—but the governor had not yet signed it.

Bruce Norris died in a Pennsylvania prison Saturday of COVID-19 while a commutation of his life sentence lay unsigned on the governor’s desk. Norris had been sentenced to life for his role in a 1975 robbery that ended with the death of one man, but he had received a recommendation for a commutation from the state Board of Pardons in mid-December. He became infected at State Correctional Institution Phoenix earlier this month after moving into a shared cell, following decades in a single cell. He was 69, and had spent 45 years of his life in prison. Norris’ son Perry Lighty told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “This was time after 45 years that he could have been home with his loved ones.”

The governor’s office said in a statement about another prisoner awaiting a signature on a pardon, “The remaining recommendations for commutation are undergoing the internal processing with the Board as it prepares the official recommendation for the governor’s review.”