A recent Philadelphia Inquirer study revealed that the death penal­ty is almost nev­er hand­ed down for homi­cides in Pennsylvania, and that exe­cu­tions are even more unlike­ly. From a com­pi­la­tion of 1,975 homi­cide cas­es dat­ing from 2007 to Feb. 3, 2011 pro­vid­ed by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, only 8 result­ed in a death sen­tence. Almost all cas­es end­ed with a sen­tence of life with­out parole, with guilty pleas, acquit­tals or dis­missal of charges. Of the almost 2,000 cas­es from 56 coun­ties, 639 were judged to be 1st degree mur­ders, eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty; 231 of those end­ed with life sen­tences. Pennsylvania has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 1999, and has exe­cut­ed 3 peo­ple since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1978. All three waived their appeals. Those on death row spend 23 hours a day in soli­tary con­fine­ment in spe­cial units at 4 state pris­ons, some for as long as 27 years. Over half of the 222 cas­es in which the death sen­tence was over­turned were found to have ineffective representation. 

Those who did receive the death penal­ty were not nec­es­sar­i­ly the worst cas­es; among those who did not receive the death penal­ty were one man who killed two secu­ri­ty guards, and three ment who killed police officers. 

(J. Slobodzian, ​“Rarely used, Pennsylvania’s death penal­ty remains a headache on both sides of the debate,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 2011). See Arbitrariness and Sentencing.

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