Dechert and Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis Successfully Prevent Death Sentence for Pro Bono Client

[Dechert LLP via BizWire]

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2004--Dechert LLP and
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP today announced that the
Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas has vacated the death
sentence of their pro bono client Simon Pirela, a mentally retarded
prisoner who was born in Puerto Rico and who has been on
Pennsylvania's death row since 1983. This is one of the first
decisions applying the United States Supreme Court's 2002 decision in
Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), which categorically barred
the execution of mentally retarded individuals.
The decision in Commonwealth v. Pirela, issued by the Honorable
Carolyn Engel Temin, came after a ten-day evidentiary hearing at which
Mr. Pirela was represented by Dechert partner George G. Gordon and
then-Dechert associate Aline Fairweather, and Schnader attorney
Stephen J. Anderer, Ph.D., and Robert Brett Dunham of the Defender
Association of Philadelphia's Capital Habeas Corpus Unit. Mr. Pirela's
legal team presented extensive evidence regarding his brain damage and
associated mental limitations, including images of Mr. Pirela's brain
prepared through positron emission tomography ("PET") scans, and the
results of a neuropsychological evaluation of Mr. Pirela by a
nationally recognized expert in the evaluation of Spanish speakers.
Because Mr. Pirela does not speak English and has been incarcerated in
a very restrictive setting for 20 years, the assessment of his
intellectual and adaptive functioning presented particular challenges
that were overcome by Mr. Pirela's defense team.
Over the past several years, Dechert and Schnader have represented
Mr. Pirela separately in two first-degree murder cases. In 2000, a
Schnader team led by Samuel W. Silver and Stephen J. Anderer
successfully obtained a life sentence for Mr. Pirela in one of the
cases, Commonwealth v. Morales. The firms' joint representation of Mr.
Pirela at his recent hearing was the natural outcome of the firms'
close cooperation in their efforts to prevent Mr. Pirela's execution,
including sharing the significant expense for the PET scan and MRI of
Mr. Pirela's brain.
Dechert and Schnader have both been recognized for their
commitment to providing legal services pro bono to people in need.
Both firms are members of the Law Firm Pro Bono Project and are
signatories to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge whereby they have
pledged to devote three percent of their time each year to pro bono
matters. Both firms have appointed senior lawyers to lead their pro
bono efforts. Dechert recently appointed Suzanne E. Turner as the
firm's first pro bono partner. Ms. Turner is resident in Dechert's
London office. At Schnader, a counsel of the firm, Joseph A. Sullivan,
directs Schnader's public service commitment.
With more than 700 lawyers located in 17 cities, Dechert provides
a full range of legal services to corporations and financial
institutions in transactional, regulatory, and litigation matters.
Visit Dechert on the web at www.dechert.com.
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP (www.schnader.com) is a
national law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California,
Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. Schnader serves local, national and
international clients ranging from large international corporations to
individual entrepreneurs in more than 30 areas of the law, spanning
litigation, environmental, e-commerce, aviation, rail transport,
government investigations, corporate compliance, class action defense,
family law, intellectual property, real estate, securities and
transactional law, and trusts and estates.