NEWS (2/​11/​20): The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has stayed the exe­cu­tion of Jordan Clemons, which had been sched­uled for March 13, 2020. As required by a law enact­ed by the Pennsylvania leg­is­la­ture in 1995, Clemons was the sub­ject of a legal­ly pre­ma­ture exe­cu­tion date, even though he had not yet had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to appeal his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in state or fed­er­al post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings and was enti­tled to pur­sue those appeals. The one-sen­tence order, issued February 11, 2020, stays Mr. Clemons exe­cu­tion ​“pend­ing com­ple­tion of these habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings or until fur­ther order of this Court.”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state and has refused to sign death war­rants. In the absence of a war­rant, the law requires the Secretary of the Department of Corrections to set an exe­cu­tion date, and Sec. John Wetzel issued a ​“notice of exe­cu­tion” on February 10.