Pennsylvania’s Costly Death Penalty Produces Nothing in Return

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has signed 113 exe­cu­tion war­rants dur­ing his two terms in office, yet it appears like­ly that he will leave office in a few months with­out see­ing any of them car­ried out. Since the state rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1978, only three men have been exe­cut­ed, all of whom had waived their appeals. 

Inadequate fund­ing for crim­i­nal defense may be one of the pri­ma­ry rea­sons for this de fac­to mora­to­ri­um. Since 1978, state and fed­er­al courts have over­turned 124 death penal­ty cas­es on post-con­vic­tion review, most­ly because of inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. (Other rea­sons cit­ed include pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion, and improp­er argu­ment and jury instruc­tions). When the cas­es are retried, almost all result in a life sentence.

Robert Dunham, a fed­er­al defend­er, said, ​“So long as Pennsylvania sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly fails to ade­quate­ly pro­vide resources at tri­al, cas­es will be reversed [in] post-con­vic­tion.” Marc Bookman, founder of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation in Philadelphia, said ​“an ungod­ly amount of mon­ey” has been spent on the death penal­ty in the state. “[I]t’s an incred­i­ble waste of mon­ey,” he added. ​“We’re prop­ping this thing up so that some of our lead­ers can claim to be tough on law and order.” Pennsylvania has the fourth largest death row in the country.