Articles of Interest: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board Argues that Death Penalty Will Not Bring Justice for Leon Katz

In a new editorial, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penalty is “never the justice that is called for” and achieves “nothing of value except the satisfaction of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an “almost unfathomable” crime and a “violation of primordial innocence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s decision to seek the death penalty against Nicole Virzi, Leon’s alleged killer, “will only extend the prosecutorial process possibly by decades” and “protect no one while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.” The editors point out that in the modern era of the death penalty, Pennsylvania has spent over $1 billion to sentence 400 people to death, but executed only three, fewer than the 10 people who have been exonerated from death row. The commonwealth has been under a death penalty moratorium since 2015 and has not conducted an execution since 1999. There is no evidence that the death penalty deters violent crime, the editors argue, and it “will only delay, and weaken, the measure of justice the system can provide” to baby Leon and his family.

Death sentences for women are exceedingly rare. Of the nearly 9000 people in DPI’s Death Penalty Census who have been sentenced to death since 1972, only 177 (2%) have been women, and only 17 of those women (9.6%) have been executed. Only 7 women have been sentenced to death in Pennsylvania, the last in 2005, and all had their death sentences vacated. The cases in which prosecutors do choose to pursue the death penalty against female defendants often involve crimes against children. Scholars have suggested that the death penalty is sought against women who are perceived as violating gender norms, such as the role of a mother or caretaker. However, most women who have been sentenced to death for killing children have ultimately had their sentences vacated or died before execution; the majority of American women who were executed (14/17) were sentenced to death for the murders of adults.