The Death Penalty in the case. Weintraub insists without the confession, that last buried victim would never be found. Now, robert dunham, a Death Penalty opponent, was quoted in the new york times. I want to read this real quick. He said, its clearly arbitrary that a quadruple murderer is spared capital prosecution because he was successfully able to hide the victims body, and the Death Penalty gets pursued against an accomplice in a robbery gone bad. Basically dunham, who was a Death Penalty opponent, whos saying if you can hide the evidence, youre better off than someone whos not able to do Something Like that. So, ed, would you have done a deal . I would have, for this reason. Its not just the closure thats very important for the victims, and i use that in a very broad sense here. Its the families, as well. Finding that body was important, but the other thing and this is where that quote you just read [clears throat] im going to question the sincerity of the opponent because hes relying on an argument thats different than the one that they typically use. Bottom line, matt, it is so expensive and lengthy to try to bring someone to the final punishment when you pursue the Death Penalty that, quite frankly, i think more and more youre seeing municipalities default to the position of not pursuing the Death Penalty. It just takes too long, winds up never being enacted, and then youve lost a lot of time and a lot of money. In this case, at least, you have a family that has some closure. Matt, i agree with what eds saying, but i also think that this points and i am a strong proponent of the Death Penalty and i think that this points out why we need to keep the Death Penalty on the books. Strategically, had they not been able to use that as leverage. Cudgel. As a cudgel, they might not have been able to get this young man to confess to the crime. I have no problem whatsoever with the concept of the Death Penalty. I know people say that its racist, its unfairly applied across the board, and that is true if you look at the statistics, but in and of itself, it doesnt violate the 8th amendment. Its been upheld by the Supreme Court. And in this particular case, although at the beginning i was really annoyed that they took it off the table because if youre not gonna use it in this kind of a crime, when are you gonna use it . But then i sat back and i thought they wouldnt have found that body if they hadnt pressured that young man, and how else could they pressure that young man . By taking the Death Penalty off the table. We need it. We need it in the books. We need it on the books. Moratorium fine. Use dna, but dont take it away. George, nelson . I think that i think i heard them say is it would have been harder to find that body. They didnt say they never would have found that body without the Death Penalty. Im not in favor of the Death Penalty, and i believe that from a Law Enforcement perspective, there is no evidence that using the Death Penalty has done anything to bring people further to closure with respect to crimes that are on the books or that are unsolved. And so i think just as a personal faith for me, its just something that we should not be imposing the Death Penalty upon people. On the level of the Death Penalty, theres been a moratorium in pennsylvania for a very, very long time. We havent put anyone to death in years. Gary heidnik was the last one. That was in 1999, and he was only one of three in the state since they reinstituted the Death Penalty in 1976. So the question really is, is it gonna cost a lot of money to go through the process of getting him . cause only a jury can put you to death. The judge cant. And so that you have to bring the evidence before a jury. In terms of the aggravating situation, he may have gotten the Death Penalty, but it wouldnt have been implemented, and as a result, it would have been a waste of time. Now, the good thing i think about weintraub was that he consulted with the families. He did. And when he consulted with the families, they said these guys are too young. They should sit in jail for a long time so they realize and have to live with the crime. So to some extent, having that consultation and having the ability of the family, being a part of the decision i think makes it more palatable in terms of what occurred. But i agree with george the Death Penalty, to some extent, does not, in any way its not a diversion to a crime. But, matt, can i say one really quick thing . And, okay, so theyll get life. And right now, right here were angry and we say, you know, let them spend their lifetimes behind bars, yes. But then 10, 15, 20, 30 years down the road, were gonna say, oh, we have sympathy for them, and theyre rehabilitated. They should be let out on parole. This should be life without parole. This crime was and, i mean, im passionate about this. This was a heinous crime. That boy, those two cousins should never see the light of day. And along those lines, christine, tell me what you think about what has been exposed here that may or may not have been lost in all this, this idea of this drug subculture, this underworld, and the many things about this case that we may not even know and may not ever learn thats been going on in the suburbs that people assume doesnt happen. I think youre right. Everyone assumes its an urban issue in terms of the opioid. And you hear apparently it was mostly marijuana, but. But its still the opioid in terms of the unbelievable utilization of anything they can to kill either their mentality or their ability. But its an epidemic throughout the country. I dont think marijuana is that kind, but its something that happens. And for the first time, because we have this epidemic we always had an epidemic in urban america because the epidemic is now occurring throughout the country, its become a story after a story, every governor talking about how its destroying families, and what to do in terms of getting some care for these individuals as an illness, where so many went to jail because of this issue and to have these kids also who are good kids, by the way have these kids go out and try to figure a way in which they could find some and then sell it cause it was 8,000 on one of the buys. So they were gonna basically be distributing the marijuana elsewhere, so it wasnt just a buy just to buy for the personal use. It was also to be used for obviously some other purposes. George, ed, you want to wrap this up . Final thought here . When it was an inner city issue, you didnt see the dialogue that nelson has talked about and the replacement act that the republicans are trying to do for the Affordable Care. Theres 45 billion that theyre proposing to deal with the opioid problem. Governors and all of their budgets, they have dollars in it to deal with the opioid problem. Never saw those dollars in it when it was an inner city problem. 2 okay, lets move on to another issue, and i read a column about how we focus on the bucks county murders and ignore the fact that philadelphias homicide rate has really increased. Were gonna talk about that right now. As of friday, the homicide count in philadelphia was at 173. Its 19 higher than it was at this time last year. And philadelphia is on track to record 300 murders for the First Time Since 2012. Now, commissioner richard ross pointed out that crime overall is down in the city. Hes right. Rates down significantly. Robberies and burglaries are down. He also said officers have been helping those at risk, and in some cases, diverting people arrested for minor crimes to keep them out of the system, which may or may not be a good idea. Ill get your thoughts on that. And also why you think the homicide rate has jumped so much this year. So, two issues. One, obviously is, again, back to opioid issue. And secondly, guns have a lot to do with guns in the urban community. But has anything changed since last year when it comes to weapons . Well, the question that i have is ramsey, the ramsey report that was done through the president , question i have has that been implemented . Is there implementation with regard to that . Because in new york, which is a city nine times bigger than we have here, they dont have as many homicides as we have. So there has to be some kind of implementation of whatever was a problem that has not occurred during the ramsey report that was put together in the last administration. George . I think you see the consequences of gentrification going on in the city where youre now seeing poor people being forced into smaller communities and smaller spaces in communities, and youre seeing people now moving from north philadelphia into the northwest. So now you have different people in those communities, and you have a frustration. Were living in a city thats a renaissance city right now. Everywhere you look, theres a crane. But theres still 27 poverty, schools are not getting better, and so theres nothing that gives these people hope, and so theres a frustration that boils over into the kind of events that we see. Interesting. I have not heard many people talk about that theory. Its an interesting theory. Well im sorry. No, please. I completely agree with what george said. I think you are mixing all different sorts of people. Philadelphia has always been a very segregated city. You now, though, because of gentrification and because of movement fluctuations, millennials, different generations, people are being thrown together. And its not always an easy mix. Its not always people are able to sort of integrate and meld. And im not just talking about race. Im not just talking about class, money. Im talking about all the Different Levels and stratas of society that we have. And its like tectonic plates that are, you know, hitting up against each other, and the earthquake erupts and the murder rate. You have the same thing in other cities. Yeah. And i have to tell you that its how we are managing our Police Department is extremely significant. And theyre doing it well in new york. Why cant we do it here . I mean, its the same opportunities to do it here, so weve got to look at how the implementation is going. Weve got the worst severe poverty rate of any major city in the United States. And the breakdown of family, that severe poverty, the lack of Economic Opportunity winds up creating all of these terrible outcomes. And its not just in the murder rate. Its also just in the Overall Health in the cities. Weve got some of the worst disparities by zip code in this town of any city in the United States and severe endemic poverty. If there isnt an opportunity to bring families together, keep them intact, and also, i think, Economic Opportunity is a key driver of all that, it doesnt happen. We asked commissioner ramsey when he was the commissioner why dont we see National Gangs set foot in philadelphia . You know what he said . He said they were afraid of the people in the neighborhoods in those particular gangs, which goes along the line of maybe these drug gangs in philadelphia are being squeezed to the point where the fighting is just like a typical response. Theyre working on territory thats getting smaller and smaller. Do you buy that . Well, i think theres certainly something again, thats the gentrification component. So people are looking for turf, but i think its combined with a general frustration i think eds right a general frustration with people where they dont see the way out. And so in our society, we focus on how do i get money so that i can survive . You can get an education, you can get a job, you can do crime, and a lot of these kids resolve to do crime. Unfortunately, thats the way they see out. It doesnt really get many of them out, but thats the way they see it. Lets do this real quick. Requiring the talk in new jersey schools. The talk is something that many africanamericans have with their children about how to avoid confrontations with Police Officers. New jersey assemblywoman Sheila Oliver sponsored a bill that would require schools to teach children how to interact with police, particularly when there is some sort of confrontation. It passed the assembly unanimously, but some people say its not such a great idea. Any thoughts on that . I think that the issue of whos gonna educate the educators. Not everyone understands the issue. It tends to be predominantly a minority issue, an africanamerican latino issue in terms of what you have to do when you confront a Police Officer and how you have to behave with regard to the confrontation. And i dont think everybody understands that issue, so whos gonna educate them first before they can do the education . The criticism is it puts the onus on the victim rather than not requiring, say, Police Officers to be better trained. And so what they did was they got input. They revamped the proposal, the bill, and they got input from the aclu, and now theres more of a focus on what are your rights, you as a child, you as a young person, what are your rights . Its not just what are your obligations with respect to how do you act when youre arrested. But what are your rights, as well . And i think that theres a fair balance there. I think that, you know, there is the perception that you are blaming the victim, saying, you know, its your fault if you got arrested, and you have to just sort of, like, take everything. And thats why they got the aclu involved, as well. So, i mean, this may not be a perfect bill, but the idea behind it i think is really important. How do we keep our kids safe . How do we keep our Police Officers safe and, you know, towing the straight and narrow . Sometimes you dont have to do anything. You saw this woman who called 911, and she got minneapolis. Yeah, minneapolis. She got shot. Yeah. So some people dont have to do anything to get shot in a neighborhood. So im not sure the total behavior is an issue. You know, i might have stayed in the house and not called 911 with the fear that who is gonna be taken. George . I think its a simplistic solution to a complex problem. I mean, teaching kids their rights i think is a good thing, but unfortunately, the police state in america has changed to a military approach to policing, and that is eliminate the problem as opposed to mitigate the problem first. And until we deal with that issue, were gonna continue to see these clashes, particularly in minority communities. Got to go to a break. Well talk about the new District Attorney of philadelphia next. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Back with inside story. Philadelphia has a new District Attorney for now. The board of judges selected kelley hodge to fill the rest of the term of former d. A. Seth williams, who, as you know, resigned after his corruption conviction. Hodge will be the first africanamerican woman to serve as the citys d. A. When she is sworn in. Heres my question and hodge is supremely qualified. I dont think theres any doubt about that. But kathleen martin, who recused herself from being in the mix here, has basically been running this office for several months. Why not, nelson, just keep her on the job until january, which is not too far away . Well, its because of the state requirement that the board of judges has the obligation whenever theres a vacancy to appoint someone. So why wouldnt they appoint martin . She decided to level herself out. Lets pretend that she knew she wasnt gonna win. Well, i think that it was a Glass Ceiling to be broken, and so we have an africanamerican woman. We have now, what i call the judicial council, which is known as the Clifford Scott green judicial council, which is made up of at least 30 africanamerican judges. When i was on the court, abraham won by one vote. We only had about 10 africanamerican minority judges. You have a council that is very so, the council is headed to some extent by the president judge, who was president of the council, whos africanamerican. You have the head of the trial division, whos also africanamerican, and the civil division, africanamerican. So the court has changed considerably when there were opportunities denied to us. This is an opportunity that essentially was given to a highly qualified individual, and so i think they made the right choice. Matt, she apparently hodge is apparently extremely supremely qualified for this position. Thats good. Thats all that should matter here, not i know were talking about Glass Ceilings. Well, Lynne Abraham broke a Glass Ceiling by becoming the first female District Attorney in the city of philadelphia. But that never mattered. People never looked at her as a woman. She was a tough cookie, but she wasnt a female. She was a tough person. I was actually and, you know, this is water under the bridge now, and its moot because shes not the nominee but when the naacp came out, when Rodney Muhammad came out and attacked one particular candidate, Lynne Abraham, basically on the basis of race, and they hadnt come out and attacked Seth Williams for his unethical practices in office. I just found that to be wrong. Were looking back from what is there has always been an issue between Lynne Abraham and the africanamerican communities. Nothing new. And there was a lot of communication and publication and fanfare when lynne was elected as the first woman. She was the tough cookie. But there was a lot of publication around the fact that she was the first woman. I think you also in this situation look, these are judges who know the District Attorneys office. They have a reason why they may or may not have been for the woman who was running it on a day to day basis currently. Its not like theres not some conflict of interest here. Ed . Someday well be at the point that christine laments. Well be looking strictly at qualifications, no other factor. Were not there yet. Battle over soda tax will not die. Former new york mayor Michael Bloomberg is funding a new commercial touting the benefits of prekindergarten in philadelphia, which is paid for with part of the taxs revenue. Meanwhile, the American Beverage Association wont give up its efforts to repeal the law. They are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to try to hear the case. When asked by philadelphia magazine, by the way, how he responds to complaints about the soda tax, mayor jim kenney said, enjoy being thinner than you were. [ laughter ] aside from that, do you think the aba has a chance to get this into the Supreme Court . Nelson . Yeah, itll get into the Supreme Court. No question about it. Particularly and that could spell a lot of trouble. Yeah, particularly because of our constitution, our Pennsylvania State constitution, which requires uniform taxation, and, to some extent, a city doing their own taxation process may be an issue. But i would think that bloomberg would be better off if he gave the money to the prek instead of making abc a lot more rich in terms of having those ads go on, cause hes spending more than a Million Dollars a week just on advertisement. We could help a lot of kids, particularly in our school system, if he gave us that money. Its kind of following along the lines of george soros and dipping his toe into philadelphia politics with larry krasner, his beneficiary. I think at some point, people are gonna get tired of that. I think people resent somebody with a lot of money coming in and trying to influence the course of events in their town. Now, maybe a lot of people will accept this, but i guarantee someday, someone will be on the other side of the issue, an issue that they really hate, and theyll resent the fact that hes spending money to try to influence politics in their town. Koch brothers have been doing it for 30 years, and nobodys gotten tired of it yet. Theyre doing it everywhere. Theyre gonna be here this year in the senate race. Theyre gonna be in politics in pennsylvania. Theyre doing it all over theyre not buying direct ads, george, on issues. They absolutely are. They just bought the direct ad against heller in nevada when he wasnt supporting the Affordable Care act. Politics, not issues. During the break, you may continue. [ laughter ] inside stories will be coming up. We buy any car any make, any model, any age, any price from 50 bucks to 100 grand we buy any car any, any, any, any at webuyanycar. Com, the gimmicks stop with our ads. Trading in our selling your car is hasslefree with just three easy steps. One, get your free online valuation. Two, drive to your local car buying centre. And three, walk out with your check in as little as 30 minutes. So dont wait. Get your free online valuation now. Find out how much your cars worth at webuyanycar. Com inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Inside stories of the week. We start with george. Federal government spends billions of dollars each year to pay to medicaid and food stamps and other entitlements to the working poor who are working for Companies Like walmart and mcdonalds who dont pay them enough to get benefits. We are subsidizing these companies. Imagine what we could do if we had freed up those dollars to invest them in people. Thank you, george. Ed. This week, Thomas JeffersonHealth System and ge signed a groundbreaking eightyear deal in which theyre going to try to bring down the cost of healthcare while at the same time providing more of it, better outcomes, better patient experiences. Congratulations to steve klasko and steve crane at jefferson. Its a really innovative proposal. Thanks, ed. Nelson . The contingent of trenton, washington, and now harrisburg has continued. We got a budget, but no financing. What occurs is that all of the affiliated universities are short cut as a result of that, and until the finance comes through, a lot of these kids are gonna have trouble in terms of getting to college and getting the Financial Support they need. Lets get it together. These kids dont want to pay more tuition. Thanks, nelson. Christine . In a time of rank partisanship, its difficult to find people and things that bring us together. One of those things is john mccain prisoner of war, national hero, stricken with brain cancer. Get well, sir. We still need you. I had the pleasure of interviewing him when he was running for president , and aside from his politics, true american hero. He would not leave vietnam until all the other people would leave. So what hes done for the country unquestionable. Hope he recovers. Thanks for watching inside story this week. For our panelists, thank you, and thanks for watching. Ill see you monday morning on action news. 4 30 a. M. set your alarm 4 30 a. M. Le im nydia han along with gray hall. Coming up next only action news, breaking news in Montgomery County a man was found dead inside a home. The investigation is underway. Plus, tragedy in elkins park. The couple found inside their home after it went up in flames early this morning. Were live on the scene. Another twitter tirade from president trump, the statement from the president that has constitutional lawyers warning of a potential crisis in the russian investigation. Those stories and more action news at noon starts in 90 seconds. Fios is not cable. Were a 100 fiber optic network. And with the new fios gigabit connection. You get our fastest. Internet ever. With download speeds up to 940 megs 20 times faster than most people have. Switch to fios gigabit connection with tv and phone for 79. 99 a month online for the first year. Plus hbo for one year and multiroom dvr service for two years, all with a twoyear agreement. And switching has never been easier. Get out of your contract with up to a 500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. Go to fiosgigabit. Com july 23 im nydia han along with gray hall. Heres a look at the stories were following on action news. Were following developing news in Montgomery County. After