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Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Pennsylvania. Despite remaining a legal penalty, there have been no executions in Pennsylvania since 1999, and only three since 1976 (all occurring in the 1990s, during the governorship of Tom Ridge). In February 2015, Governor Tom Wolf announced a formal moratorium on executions that is still in ...
Apr 24, 2023 · The death penalty has not been abolished by law and may be used if the unconstitutional sentencing statute is revised by legislature. The Death Penalty Information Center, the Washington Post, and FindLaw have declared 2007 as the year New York’s death penalty was abolished. Other sources, including Assisting Lawyers for Justice (ALJ) on ...
StateDeath Penalty StatusYear Of Legislation Or Court RulingSummary Of Death Penalty HistoryAlabamalegal1976Alabama reinstated capital punishment in ...Alaskaillegal1957The last execution in Alaska was in 1950 ...Arizonalegal1973The death penalty was abolished in 1916, ...Arkansaslegal1973As his last act as Governor, Winthrop ...- History of The Death Penalty
- Timeline
- Famous Cases
- Notable Exonerations
- Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
- Other Interesting Facts
Pennsylvania began carrying out executions in the early 1600s in the form of public hangings. In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state in the U.S. to outlaw public executions and move the gallows to county prisons. In 1913, the state’s capital punishment statute was amended to bring executions under the administration of the state rather than i...
1834 - Pennsylvania becomes the first state to outlaw public executions and move the gallows to county prisons. 1913 - Pennsylvania’s capital punishment statute is amended to bring executions under the administration of the state rather than individual counties. 1913 - Electrocution becomes Pennsylvania’s main method of execution. 1962 - Elmo Smith...
Mumia Abu-Jamal was charged with the 1981 murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner and both the conviction and the subsequent death sentence sparked fierce controversy. Throughout his three-decade stay on Pennsylvania’s death row, Abu-Jamal’s supporters maintained that he is innocent. Organizations including Amnesty International and the City Gover...
Nicholas Yarris was convicted in 1982 for the abduction, rape and murder of a young woman returning home from a day of work at the local mall. DNA evidence was collected at the crime scene but wasn’t the primary evidence in Yarris’ conviction. Multiple eyewitnesses testified to having seen a man resembling Yarris loitering in the vicinity of the sh...
In Commonwealth v. Bradley (1972), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled the Commonwealth’s death penalty sentencing procedures unconstitutional, implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia. Death row was emptied and sentences were judicially reduced to life. In 1974, overriding Governor Shapp’s veto, the legislature reenacted...
Pennsylvania has the most onerous clemency prerequisites of any state, requiring the five-member Board of Pardons, which includes the Attorney General, the Lt. Governor, a corrections expert, a victim advocate, and a mental health expert, to unanimously recommend clemency before the Governor has the power to consider commutation. It has not granted...
- Pennsylvania has not executed anyone since 1999. Philadelphia torture-killer Gary Heidnik was executed by lethal injection at Rockview State Prison in Centre County in July 1999.
- Who is on death row in Pennsylvania? Of the 101 people now awaiting execution in Pennsylvania, 46 are Black, 44 are white, 10 are Hispanic, and one is of Asian descent.
- Does Pennsylvania provide money for capital defense for people who cannot afford it? In 2019, for the first time ever, Pennsylvania set aside public funds for poor defendants facing the death penalty.
- How many people have been exonerated from death row in Pennsylvania? Since 1973, there have been 11 exonerations from Pennsylvania’s death row — five of them since 2019, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Nov 7, 2023 · A bill to repeal the death penalty in Pennsylvania has passed a committee in the commonwealth’s House of Representatives. The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee voted 15-10 in favor of HB 999 on October 31, 2023. That vote is the first step toward abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania, which has had a formal moratorium on ...
May 1, 2023 · If Pennsylvania does abolish the death penalty, it will be the 24th state to do so. Currently, Pennsylvania is one of the 14 states where the death penalty is a legal punishment, but an execution has not been carried out within the last 10 years. Pennsylvania is not the only state currently exploring death penalty reform or pausing executions.
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Nov 1, 2023 · The Capitol building in Harrisburg on Oct. 12, 2023. Pennsylvania is among 27 states that allow the death penalty, but some state representatives are trying to change that. Legislation introduced by Rep. Christopher Rabb, D-Philadelphia calling for the end of the practice was voted out of committee Tuesday. The state has executed three people ...
