Pennsylvania Governor Issues Reprieve for Richard Laird, Continuing State’s Execution Moratorium

On December 5, 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued an exe­cu­tion reprieve for Richard Roland Laird, the same day the Department of Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry signed a Notice of Execution for January 2, 2026. In issu­ing the same-day reprieve, Gov. Shapiro act­ed on his promise to main­tain an exe­cu­tion mora­to­ri­um in Pennsylvania. In February 2023, Gov. Shapiro announced he would con­tin­ue his pre­de­ces­sor Tom Wolf’s halt on exe­cu­tions, and called upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly to repeal the death penal­ty. He stat­ed: ​“When an exe­cu­tion war­rant comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve each and every time.”

After an indi­vid­ual is sen­tenced to death in Pennsylvania, the gov­er­nor is pre­sent­ed with a war­rant to set the date of exe­cu­tion, and if the gov­er­nor does not sign it and a date is not set, the Secretary of Corrections must issue a notice of exe­cu­tion. Since 1985, just three of the 482 war­rants or notices issued in Pennsylvania have been car­ried out, accord­ing to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC). Since 1973, there have been 13 exon­er­a­tions from Pennsylvania’s death row.

When issu­ing a reprieve for Mr. Laird, Gov. Shapiro out­lined that in his pre­vi­ous role as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, he ​“had the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem first­hand” and his ​“expe­ri­ence revealed two unde­ni­able truths about” the death penal­ty: ​“that it is inher­ent­ly fal­li­ble and its con­se­quences are irre­versible.” Gov. Shapiro stat­ed that while he remains ​“com­mit­ted to secur­ing jus­tice for vic­tims and their fam­i­lies” and that those sen­tenced to death have com­mit­ted the ​“most ter­ri­ble crimes,” ​“the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should not be in the busi­ness of exe­cut­ing peo­ple.” He also not­ed that he has ​“called upon the General Assembly to pass leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the death penal­ty, as near­ly half the states in our nation — includ­ing sev­er­al of [Pennsylvania’s] neigh­bor­ing states — have already done.”

Pennsylvania leg­is­la­tors have intro­duced bills in recent ses­sions to abol­ish the death penal­ty. In 2023, leg­is­la­tion made it out of the House Judiciary Committee but was nev­er moved for a vote. House Bill 888, intro­duced in the 2025 – 2026 Regular Session, and spon­sored by Representative Russ Diamond (R) would elim­i­nate the death penal­ty as a sen­tenc­ing option, leav­ing the most severe pun­ish­ment as life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. This bill has seen notable bipar­ti­san sup­port and is among 12 abo­li­tion bills intro­duced across 12 states with the death penal­ty in 2025.