Pennsylvania Governor to Block All Executions

Shapiro also calls for the state's death penalty to be abolished

Pennsylvania Governor-elect Josh Shapiro, in his role as Attorney General, speaks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Oct. 27, 2022. (Commonwealth Media Service)

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Feb. 16 said that he would block any inmate executions and called on the state’s legislature to repeal capital punishment.

Shapiro—a Democrat who, as Pennsylvania attorney general, supported the death penalty for the worst and most violent crimes—said he will not sign any death warrants and will grant reprieves to prevent death sentences from being carried out.

In 2015, Shapiro’s predecessor in the Governorship, Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, placed a moratorium on executions.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks with the press in Philadelphia, Dec. 16, 2022 (Commonwealth Media Service)

According to statistics published by the Death Penalty Information Center, as of 2022, 27 U.S. states allow for the death penalty. Three states with the death penalty—California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania—had governor-decreed moratoriums on executions, which are still in place.

In reaction to Gov. Shapiro’s announcement, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, released a statement in which the organization’s national manager, Demetrius Minor, said,  “We support Governor Shapiro’s call for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass legislation ending the state’s death penalty.

“Capital punishment does not align with our conservative principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and valuing life.”

The governor explained his position on the death penalty during an appearance at Mosaic Community Church in West Philadelphia and joined by elected officials, community leaders, and criminal justice reform advocates,

“The people who are on death row in our Commonwealth have committed serious crimes. They deserve to be put behind bars for a good long time, if not for life.”

Shapiro went on to affirm that he was not challenging the “integrity” of “individual capital convictions” but questioning “whether death is a just and appropriate punishment for the state to inflict on its citizens.”

The Governor acknowledged that as Pennsylvania attorney general, he supported capital punishment for the “most heinous crimes.”

Yet, he said, when the “first capital cases came to my desk in the AG’s office, I found myself repeatedly unwilling to seek the death penalty,” and added, “When my son asked me why is it OK to kill someone as punishment for killing someone I could not look him in the eye. That moved me.”

Shapiro talked about how his first reaction to the murder to murder of 11 people worshiping at the Tree of Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 was that the gunman “deserved to be put to death.”

But, he continued, “I’ve spoken to victims, to families, and to community leaders and listened to families of the 11 people slain at Tree of Life and was blown away by their courage and their fortitude. They told me that even after all the pain and anguish, they did not want the killer put to death.”

A makeshift memorial stands outside the Tree of Life synagogue in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at the in Pittsburgh on Oct. 29, 2018.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

“I will not issue any execution warrants during my term as Governor,” and when an “execution warrant comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve each and every time,” he said.

Death Penalty in Pennsylvania

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that states could reinstate the death penalty, Pennsylvania has executed three men by lethal injection. Each man chose not to continue appeals that would have effectively stayed their executions and prolonged their life.

The last person executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Heidnik, the “House of Horrors” killer, on July 6, 1999.

A jury convicted Heidnik of the first-degree murder, rape, and imprisonment of two women and imprisonment and rape of four other women, in the basement of his home in Philadelphia.