Pennsylvania's dormant death penalty statute has hung around for more than a decade, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and leaving a moral stain on the state. Protracted legal appeals and a moratorium on executions have idled Pennsylvania's Death House. Because of that, many people don't know the state's death penalty law remains on the books, and prosecutors across the state continue to use it.
Pennsylvania hasn't executed anyone since Gary Heidnik died by lethal injection in 1999, but the state's death row is one of the nation's largest, with more than 100 prisoners. Like the rest of the criminal justice system, Pennsylvania's death row is racially biased: Nearly half the prisoners are Black, though African Americans make up only 11% of state residents.
The state's moratorium on executions will expire in January, when Gov. Tom Wolf leaves office, raising the specter of another killing spree, similar to the one carried out by the federal government during the final months of the Trump administration. Soon after taking office, Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro must extend the moratorium on executions — then work with legislators to repeal capital punishment in Pennsylvania.
Since 2019, Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire have ended government-sponsored executions. Sadly, Gov. Tom Wolf lacked the courage or moral commitment to help make Pennsylvania the 24th state to end capital punishment. When Wolf imposed a moratorium on executions in 2015, he called the death penalty "ineffective, unjust and expensive." Then he washed his hands of it.
Wolf could have done what then-Gov. Ralph Northam did. Last year, Virginia became the first Southern state to end capital punishment, thanks largely to Northam's efforts to galvanize opposition to the death penalty among Virginia's legislators and public. I hope Shapiro plays a similar role in Pennsylvania.
Ineffective, costly, immoral
Executing people who no longer threaten the state or community is little more than state-sponsored murder, but even the most ardent supporter of capital punishment should know Pennsylvania's death penalty statute has yielded a poor return on investment.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Pennsylvania has sentenced more than 400 prisoners to death — but only three of them were executed. Others were re-sentenced to life-without-parole, died on death row, or had convictions overturned. Ten death row prisoners in Pennsylvania were exonerated.
For all that, Pennsylvania's death penalty statute cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion, former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale reported in 2020. That's about $300 million per execution.
Death penalty cases include automatic rights to appeals that could go on for decades; they require an additional defense attorney for sentencing. Securing convictions and defending them against lengthy post-conviction appeals takes additional expert witnesses, investigations and evaluations. That's money Pennsylvania could spend on real public safety programs and victims' services.
I understand many crime victims in capital cases want the death penalty imposed anyway. I would never tell the parents of a daughter who had been raped and murdered they shouldn't feel that way — hell, I probably would feel that way, too. But rage and revenge are not good grounds for law or public policy. There are reasons the courts don't put crime victims in the jury box, or empower them to hand down sentences.
And many victims of the worst crimes oppose adding another death to the tragedy. I talked to several of them last year. I remember, in particular, Sylvester and Vicki Schieber, whose 23-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted and murdered. In 2002, they stopped Philadelphia's district attorney from imposing the death penalty on their daughter's killer.
The Schiebers believed their Catholic faith demanded forgiveness, and they didn't want to go through the ordeal of a lengthy appeal. Anger and hate only destroy the vessel that contains them, they told me.
Executing the innocent
DNA technology, first used in forensic science in 1986, proved the U.S. criminal justice system often makes terrible mistakes, and no one can undo the execution of an innocent person. Over the last 30 years, DNA technology has exonerated nearly 400 people in the United States.
In the last 45 years, about 180 death row prisoners were found to be wrongly convicted and released, including 10 in Pennsylvania.
Extrapolating from DNA exonerations and other evidence, criminologists estimate 2% to 5% of U.S. prisoners are innocent. A 2% error rate is fine for a spelling test, but horrific for sending people to prison, especially death row.
Finally, there's not a scrap of evidence to suggest the death penalty deters violent crime. Historically, violent crime rates have been higher in death penalty states. That doesn't prove the death penalty promotes violent crime, but it suggests it doesn't deter it.
I've spent a lot of time around people, in prisons and on the street, who have been convicted of violent crime. The deterrence argument makes no sense. It's crazy to think someone about to commit a murder, whether on impulse or planned, will pause to ponder whether state law imposes the death penalty or mandatory life for aggravated murder. No one who commits a murder plans to get caught. Thinking about the consequences requires long-term thinking, and most people who commit violent crimes don't spend much time doing it.
The death penalty was prescribed by Babylon's Code of Hammurabi nearly 4,000 years ago. (The ancient code of 282 laws also prescribed removing tongues, breasts, eyes or ears for certain crimes). It's time to toss this barbaric law on the ash heap of history.
During a campaign stop in New Castle last year, Shapiro, who formerly supported the death penalty, said he would, as governor, sign a bill that ended it in Pennsylvania.
I hope he does more. With the moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania set to expire, it's squarely on him to extend it — and then help persuade the General Assembly to scrap this inhumane, costly and ineffective practice.
