Pennsylvania

History of the Death Penalty

Pennsylvania began car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions in the ear­ly 1600s in the form of pub­lic hang­ings. In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state in the U.S. to out­law pub­lic exe­cu­tions and move the gal­lows to coun­ty pris­ons. In 1913, the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute was amend­ed to bring exe­cu­tions under the admin­is­tra­tion of the state rather than indi­vid­ual coun­ties, and also changed the method of exe­cu­tion to elec­tro­cu­tion. Between 1915 and 1962, there were 350 exe­cu­tions in Pennsylvania, includ­ing two women. The last pris­on­er exe­cut­ed by means of the elec­tric chair was Elmo Smith in 1962. Pennsylvania passed a law in 1990 that changed the method of exe­cu­tion from elec­tro­cu­tion to lethal injec­tion, the cur­rent means of exe­cu­tion. Prior to 1976, Pennsylvania car­ried out 1,040 exe­cu­tions, the third high­est num­ber of any state. Only three exe­cu­tions have actu­al­ly been car­ried out since rein­state­ment in 1976 despite the size of the state’s death row, which for more than two decades was the fourth largest in the nation. The Commonwealth’s death row has declined steadi­ly in size from 246 in October 2001 to 175 in July 2016, with­out any exe­cu­tions, pri­mar­i­ly as a result of death sen­tences being over­turned in the courts and defen­dants being resen­tenced to life or less or acquit­ted. It is now the coun­try’s fifth largest death row.

The Reading Eagle report­ed in June 2016 that from the time the Commonwealth enact­ed its cur­rent death penal­ty statute in September 1978 through 2015, Pennsylvania had sen­tenced 408 pris­on­ers to death. Of those, 191 had sub­se­quent­ly been resen­tenced to life or less or released (46.8%), includ­ing 169 resen­tenced to life (41.4%); 16 resen­tenced to a term of years (3.9%); and 6 exon­er­at­ed (1.5%). 181 remained on death row (44.4%), includ­ing 28 whose con­vic­tions or death sen­tences had been over­turned but who were await­ing fur­ther court pro­ceed­ings. 33 had died on death row oth­er than by exe­cu­tion (8.1%). 3 had been exe­cut­ed (0.7%).

In 1931, Pennsylvania exe­cut­ed six­teen-year-old Alexander McClay Williams in the state’s elec­tric chair on false charges that he had mur­dered Vida Robare, a white woman who served as a school matron at the youth facil­i­ty to which Williams had been com­mit­ted. Williams — the youngest per­son ever put to death in the Commonwealth — was tried, con­vict­ed, and con­demned by an all-White, all-male jury in less than a day. He was exe­cut­ed with­out an appeal.

Robare had been stabbed 47 times with an ice pick and suf­fered two bro­ken ribs and a skull frac­ture but Williams had no blood on him. Law enforce­ment sub­mit­ted a bloody hand­print from the crime scene for expert analy­sis but nei­ther pre­sent­ed the results at tri­al nor dis­closed them to the defense. Police nev­er inves­ti­gat­ed Robare’s abu­sive ex-hus­band as a pos­si­ble sus­pect even though she had recent­ly obtained a divorce from him based on his ​“extreme cru­el­ty.” After hours of police inter­ro­ga­tion under undoc­u­ment­ed cir­cum­stances, Williams con­fessed to the mur­der. However, the con­fes­sion did not match the cir­cum­stances of the crime. A 1931 pho­to­graph shows Williams with what appears to have a black eye sus­tained dur­ing police interrogation.

Williams was rep­re­sent­ed at tri­al by William Ridley, the first African American admit­ted to the Bar of Delaware County, who was pro­vid­ed just $10 inves­ti­gate and defend the case. Year’s lat­er, Ridley’s great-grand­son, Sam Lemon, and Williams’ fam­i­ly ini­ti­at­ed efforts to clear his name. Lemon was able to obtain Robare’s death cer­tifi­cate, which list­ed Williams as her mur­der­er before he even had been charged with the crime. On June 13, 2022, a judge of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas posthu­mous­ly vacat­ed Williams’ con­vic­tion, cit­ing ​“numer­ous fun­da­men­tal due process vio­la­tions.” The District Attorney’s office for­mal­ly dropped charges against Williams, exon­er­at­ing him 91 years after his wrongful execution.

Timeline

1834 — Pennsylvania becomes the first state to out­law pub­lic exe­cu­tions and move the gal­lows to county prisons.

1913 — Pennsylvania’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute is amend­ed to bring exe­cu­tions under the admin­is­tra­tion of the state rather than individual counties.

1913 — Electrocution becomes Pennsylvania’s main method of execution.

1962 — Elmo Smith becomes the last pris­on­er to be exe­cut­ed by the electric chair.

1972 — The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania rules the Commonwealth’s death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. As a result, Pennsylvania’s death row was emp­tied and sen­tences were reduced to life.

1974 — Overriding Governor Shapp’s veto, the Pennsylvania leg­is­la­ture reen­acts the death penal­ty, but this law is found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1977.

1978 — Pennsylvania’s death penal­ty is rein­stat­ed when a revised ver­sion of the death penal­ty statute pre­vi­ous­ly in place is passed.

1990 — Pennsylvania pass­es a law chang­ing the method of exe­cu­tion from elec­tro­cu­tion to lethal injection.

2002 — Governor Mark Schweiker signs leg­is­la­tion allow­ing pris­on­ers access to DNA test­ing if it may have a bear­ing on the ver­dict in their case.

2014 — Four news orga­ni­za­tions file suit in fed­er­al court chal­leng­ing Pennsylvania’s secre­cy about the source of its lethal injection drugs.

2015 — Governor Tom Wolf announces a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The mora­to­ri­um grants reprieves to each death row pris­on­er who does not receive a stay of exe­cu­tion from the courts.

2015 — Pennsylvania Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly upholds Governor Wolf’s execution moratorium.

2017 — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit declares Pennsylvania’s prac­tice of keep­ing cap­i­tal defen­dants in soli­tary con­fine­ment after courts have over­turned their death sentences unconstitutional.

2020 — A fed­er­al dis­trict court judge approves a set­tle­ment that offi­cial­ly ends the state’s pol­i­cy of manda­to­ry per­ma­nent soli­tary con­fine­ment for pris­on­ers on death row.

2023 — Governor Josh Shapiro announces that he will con­tin­ue his pre­de­ces­sor’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and calls upon the General Assembly to repeal the death penalty.

Famous Cases

Mumia Abu-Jamal was charged with the 1981 mur­der of police offi­cer Daniel Faulkner and both the con­vic­tion and the sub­se­quent death sen­tence sparked fierce con­tro­ver­sy. Throughout his three-decade stay on Pennsylvania’s death row, Abu-Jamal’s sup­port­ers main­tained that he is inno­cent. Organizations includ­ing Amnesty International and the City Government of Paris have alleged that the tri­al was taint­ed by racial dis­crim­i­na­tion and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. While on death row, Abu-Jamal pub­lished many works, includ­ing a col­lec­tion of mem­oirs Live From Death Row. His death sen­tence was over­turned by a fed­er­al court as a result of an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al jury instruc­tion in the penal­ty phase of his tri­al. That rul­ing was ini­tial­ly reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which direct­ed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to con­sid­er the impli­ca­tions of a recent case it had decid­ed. On remand, the Third Circuit again over­turned Abu-Jamal’s death sen­tence and the Supreme Court declined to review that rul­ing. Maureen Faulkner (wife of Daniel Faulkner), as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, con­tin­ued for many years to push for the sen­tence of death to be car­ried out. However, after the Supreme Court’s deci­sion, she said she was will­ing to accept a life sen­tence, and the Philadelphia District Attorney agreed to with­draw the death penal­ty from the case. Abu-Jamal is now serv­ing a life sentence.

Notable Exonerations

Nicholas Yarris was con­vict­ed in 1982 for the abduc­tion, rape and mur­der of a young woman return­ing home from a day of work at the local mall. DNA evi­dence was col­lect­ed at the crime scene but was­n’t the pri­ma­ry evi­dence in Yarris’ con­vic­tion. Multiple eye­wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied to hav­ing seen a man resem­bling Yarris loi­ter­ing in the vicin­i­ty of the shop­ping mall from which the vic­tim was abduct­ed. The pros­e­cu­tion also pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from a prison guard and a jail­house infor­mant claim­ing that Yarris had con­fessed. Blood evi­dence was found that was the same blood type as Yarris. In 1989, Yarris sought post­con­vic­tion DNA test­ing that was deemed incon­clu­sive. Years lat­er, in 2003, more sophis­ti­cat­ed DNA test­ing had been devel­oped. DNA evi­dence from blood on the killer’s gloves, skin under the vic­tim’s fin­ger­nails, and semen from the vic­tim’s panties were deter­mined to have come a sin­gle uniden­ti­fied source, who was not Nick Yarris. Yarris was released from death row, mak­ing him the 13^th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row based on DNA evi­dence. The real per­pe­tra­tor in the case has yet to be determined.

Ten oth­er men have been exon­er­at­ed from Pennsylvania’s death row, includ­ing six from Philadelphia, and Frederick Thomas died on the row of ter­mi­nal can­cer while the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office appealed a judge’s rul­ing that no jury would have con­vict­ed him had it known a vari­ety of facts that were not dis­closed to it at the time of trial.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

In Commonwealth v. Bradley (1972), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled the Commonwealth’s death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, imple­ment­ing the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Furman v. Georgia​. Death row was emp­tied and sen­tences were judi­cial­ly reduced to life. In 1974, over­rid­ing Governor Shapp’s veto, the leg­is­la­ture reen­act­ed the death penal­ty, but this law was also found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1977.

In 1978, a revised ver­sion of the death penal­ty statute was passed, again over Governor Shapp’s veto, rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty in Pennsylvania.

In 2011, the state leg­is­la­ture passed SR 6, ini­ti­at­ing a study of the death penal­ty in Pennsylvania. The study took sev­en years to com­plete and was released in June 2018. Its numer­ous rec­om­men­da­tions for reform includ­ed estab­lish­ing a state-fund­ed cap­i­tal defend­er office, ban­ning the death penal­ty for severe­ly men­tal­ly ill defen­dants, and mak­ing pub­lic the details of the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. None of these rec­om­men­da­tions has been enacted.

On February 13, 2015, Governor Tom Wolf announced a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, cit­ing con­cerns about inno­cence, racial bias, and the death penal­ty’s effects on vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Governor Wolf indi­cat­ed that the mora­to­ri­um would be imple­ment­ed by grant­i­ng reprieves to each death row pris­on­er who did not receive a stay of exe­cu­tion from the courts.

Other Interesting Facts

Pennsylvania has the most oner­ous clemen­cy pre­req­ui­sites of any state, requir­ing the five-mem­ber Board of Pardons, which includes the Attorney General, the Lt. Governor, a cor­rec­tions expert, a vic­tim advo­cate, and a men­tal health expert, to unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend clemen­cy before the Governor has the pow­er to con­sid­er com­mu­ta­tion. It has not grant­ed any death row inmate clemen­cy since Furman v. Georgia.

Pennsylvania has an auto­mat­ic death war­rant statute that requires the Governor or Corrections Secretary to pre­ma­ture­ly set exe­cu­tion dates at the con­clu­sion of the direct appeal process and with­in 30 days of the ter­mi­na­tion of any judi­cial stay. This results in a series of death war­rants being signed before statu­to­ri­ly and con­sti­tu­tion­al man­dat­ed state and fed­er­al appeals have been filed. As a result, courts have stayed more than 95% of the death war­rants. Governor Wolf has refused to sign death war­rants; his Secretary of Corrections has issued notices of execution.

The three pris­on­ers exe­cut­ed since 1978 have all been vol­un­teers with seri­ous men­tal health issues, whom courts found to have waived their rights to an appeals process.

Resources

• American Bar Association Pennsylvania Death Penalty Assessment
• Department of Corrections
• Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
• Atlantic Center for Capital Representation
• Defender Association of Philadelphia
• Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association
• Victims’ ser­vices
• United States Court of Appeals (Third Circuit) death penal­ty case list

The admin­is­tra­tion of Pennsylvania death penal­ty has been the sub­ject of a num­ber of reports and analy­ses. You can find links to sev­er­al of them below:

• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Third Judicial Circuit of the U.S., Report of the Joint Task Force on Death Penalty Litigation in Pennsylvania (July 1990)
• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System, Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System (2005), Chapter 5, Indigent Defense in Pennsylvania, and Chapter 6, Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Imposition of the Death Penalty

DPIC Testimonies at Pennsylvania Legislative Hearings

Testimony before the Pennsylvania Senate Government Management and Cost Study Commission (June 7, 2010)

Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee (June 11, 2015)

Pennsylvania Execution Totals Since 1976