Jury deadlocks again, so Scrugs gets life in prison

The life of Rasheed Scrugs - the paroled robber and admitted killer of Philadelphia police officer John Pawlowski - was spared Monday by a Philadelphia jury that could not decide whether to sentence him to death by lethal injection or life in prison.

Under Pennsylvania law, the deadlock among the eight women and four men of the Common Pleas Court jury meant the decision passed to Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes, who was required to sentence Scrugs to life in prison with no chance of parole.

It was an outcome that left Pawlowski's family angry and in tears and questioning the value of Pennsylvania's death-penalty law.

"Justice is not served," said Kimmy Pawlowski, 26, the slain officer's widow, who gave birth to his son and namesake four months after his death. "They should throw out the death penalty in Pennsylvania, because it's pointless."

Many among the police and law enforcement community attending the trial believed Scrugs, 35, of West Philadelphia, was more likely than most to get the death penalty.

Three "aggravating factors" needed for the jury to sentence him to death - killing an on-duty police officer, endangering the lives of bystanders at the shooting scene, and a history of violent crime - were inherent in his guilty plea to first-degree murder on Oct. 21, on what was supposed to have been his first day of trial.

Moreover, four witnesses testified that moments before Scrugs shot Pawlowski during a Feb. 13, 2009, nighttime confrontation at Broad Street and Olney Avenue, he told the man who called 911: "If you call the cops, I'll shoot you and the cops."

Pawlowski and partner Mark Klein were responding to a call from a cabbie who said Scrugs had roughed him up and was threatening him.

Prosecutors called the shooting an "ambush" because Scrugs fired at Pawlowski with a gun concealed in his coat pocket.

But the jury could not agree unanimously that those aggravating factors outweighed "mitigating factors" cited by defense attorneys David Rudenstein and Lee Mandell. Among the mitigators were Scrugs' abandonment by his father, his low intelligence and difficulty coping with everyday life, his use of PCP and marijuana, and his remorse in pleading guilty.

On Friday, the third full day of deliberations, the jury told the judge it was deadlocked. But after being polled by Hughes, the jurors agreed to return to work Monday and try again.

Hughes instructed the jurors again about the workings of the state death-penalty law, and they went back to deliberate. Two hours later, they returned to say they were still deadlocked.

They looked it. Several jurors seemed about to cry. Several others sat with grim looks on their flushed faces, arms crossed tightly over the chests.

Even before the jury returned at 2:50 p.m. to the big courtroom at the Criminal Justice Center, the family of the slain 25-year-old officer knew what the result would be.

Kimmy Pawlowski sat, head down and face buried in her hands, sobbing, comforted by father-in-law John Pawlowski, 59, a retired police lieutenant.

Across the courtroom, Scrugs' mother, Annah Abdul-Ghaffar, 54, sat, handkerchief covering her mouth, tears running down her cheeks, as she watched her only son leave to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Judge Hughes immediately imposed sentence, tacking on a consecutive, additional 20 to 40 years for Scrugs' guilty plea to the attempted murder of Pawlowski's partner, Klein.

Scrugs said nothing before he was sentenced.

Before he was led away by sheriff's deputies, Scrugs turned and smiled at his family. Rudenstein shook his hand and pulled him near: "Rasheed, try to do your best for your children. Keep in touch with them and make sure they don't wind up where you are."

"I will," replied Scrugs, who has sons, 18 and 15, with his ex-wife and sons, 6 and 8, from a later relationship.

Hughes, whose temper is often just below the surface, sentenced Scrugs in a monotone, her words almost perfunctory.

She spent more time in an unusual address to Pawlowski's widow and the police officers in the courtroom, asking them to understand the jury's inability to decide and not to look at it as a failure of the justice system.

"Mrs. Pawlowski, I know you can't really hear me, but I hope one day that you will," the judge said. "It didn't matter what the verdict was. . . . No matter what they said, nothing was going to fix it, nothing was going to give you back your husband, your best friend."

Hughes told Pawlowski, "I pray for you, and I pray for that gorgeous little boy," referring to Pawlowski's 17-month-old son, John III, "Little Johnny" to his family, seated next to her.

"Thank you," Pawlowski replied through sobs.

To the officers in the room, the judge said, "I don't want you to walk out of here feeling this city doesn't respect the sacrifices he [Pawlowski] has made."

Rudenstein, whose words in defending Scrugs frequently angered police attending the death-penalty hearing, apologized in court and said later: "We're very grateful for the verdict handed down. At the same time, we mourn with the victim's family and think about the loss that the city has suffered."

Rudenstein said Scrugs was remorseful for the killing: "He understood that by pleading guilty, he was showing to the jury that he really meant he was sorry."

But afterward, as the Pawlowski family, police, and city prosecutors were leaving the Criminal Justice Center opposite City Hall, feelings were too raw for any apology from Scrugs.

"I'm angry and frustrated and disappointed," said Kimmy Pawlowski. "Justice was not served. My husband is nine feet in the ground, and he [Scrugs] gets to breathe another breath. I hope he spends the rest of this life tortured by what he did to Johnny."

Deputy District Attorney Edward McCann, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho, said, "I understand Kim's frustration."

McCann called "gut-wrenching" the victim-impact testimony from Pawlowski, married four months when her husband was killed; the officer's father, John Pawlowski; and brother Robert Pawlowski, a police corporal.

"It makes real the loss to the jury," McCann told reporters. "It was meant to portray the victim as a living human being who had family and was happily married. A life was taken here. It was not just a guy in a uniform, it was a real, breathing human being."

Still, McCann defended the process and said he believed justice was served. "I'll say this: We got a fair trial in this case. We got every opportunity to put on our case. It didn't come out the way we wanted it to, but that's the way it happens sometimes. I feel we had the opportunity to fairly put our case before the jury."