Sentence Reversal, Exoneration, and Natural Death More Likely Than Execution For Pennsylvania Death Row Inmates

(Click here to enlarge image). According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, Pennsylvania is less like­ly to exe­cute a death row inmate than any oth­er state that has car­ried out any exe­cu­tions. A Reading Eagle analy­sis of BJS data from 1973 through 2013 shows that the Commonwealth has exe­cut­ed few­er than 1% of all death-sen­tenced defen­dants since 1973, with exe­cu­tion the least like­ly of 5 pos­si­ble out­comes for peo­ple sen­tenced to die. 

Nationally, 16% of those sen­tenced to death have been exe­cut­ed. The most like­ly out­come for defen­dants sen­tenced to death in Pennsylvania is that their con­vic­tion or death sen­tence will be reversed, as is also the case nation­al­ly. However, in Pennsylvania exon­er­a­tion and death by nat­ur­al caus­es or sui­cide are also more com­mon than execution. 

Since 1994, when death sen­tences peaked in Pennsylvania, the aver­age num­ber of removals from death row per year has dou­bled. The Reading Eagle reports that homi­cides across the state fell to a ten-year low in 2013, a peri­od in which Pennsylvania car­ried out no exe­cu­tions. Three years ago, the Pennsylvania state leg­is­la­ture ordered a task force to study the state’s prob­lems in apply­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, includ­ing costs, fair­ness in sen­tenc­ing, and qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. That report is expect­ed lat­er this year.

Governor Tom Wolf has halt­ed all exe­cu­tions in the state at least until the report is issued and prob­lems are addressed. Recent polls indi­cate that a major­i­ty of Pennsylvanian’s now favor some form of a life sen­tence over the death penalty.