Mary Pintea – News Editor 

mvp5879@psu.edu

Pennsylvania’s newly elected Governor Josh Shapiro said Tuesday that he would veto a bill that would reinstate the death penalty if it is passed by the state legislature.

The move comes after months of debate over whether to reinstate capital punishment in Pennsylvania, where juries are now seemingly unlikely to sentence anyone to the death penalty. 

Following in the footsteps of his predecessor Governor Tom Wolf, Shapiro remarked that no prisoners will be executed while he is Governor of Pennsylvania. He proclaimed that the state should not oversee putting people to death. Under the Wolf administration, the death penalty was not carried out in PA. 

“I believe this legislation will not achieve its stated goals and will actually cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” Shapiro said in a statement regarding the death penalty’s reinstatement. “It makes no sense to move forward with this proposal at this time.”

Shapiro recently appeared at a news conference with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and several anti-death penalty lawmakers, including Senators Vincent Hughes and Nikil Saval, as well as Representative Rick Krajewski. 

Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, made a statement backing the information Shapiro presented, remarking that Democrats have long supported criminal justice reform. House Democrats “look forward to working with the administration to advance these criminal justice reforms more broadly,” her spokesperson said. 

On the other side of the coin, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, stated that protecting society while advancing criminal justice reforms are both priorities for Senate Republicans. However, he said, supporters of death penalty abolition must consider the views of law enforcement and families of murder victims. 

“Without question, the legal and ethical aspects of the death penalty warrant careful examination before being used,” he said. 

Death penalty usage came into fruition after Shapiro received his first execution warrant two weeks ago. Shapiro, who now claims that he is morally opposed to the death penalty, was originally a supporter of it for heinous crimes. His shift on this issue politically most likely comes in response to the drastic shrinking of death penalty supporters nationwide. 

Pennsylvania has around 101 people on its death row, according to statistics from the Department of Corrections. The state has executed only three people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, as courts, and in recent years governors, have blocked every other death penalty sentence thus far. All three of these confirmed execution cases stemmed from men that had given up on appeals voluntarily, with the final and most recent execution in PA taking place in 1999. 

Compared to other states, Pennsylvania has a substantially low rate of execution for death sentences. Out of all 477 proposed death sentences in the state, only three prisoners have been executed, with 311 sentences being reversed. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a total of 18 prisoners were executed in 2022—all of which happened in Southern states, with the lone exception of Arizona. Texas and Oklahoma each executed five prisoners each last year.  

The total number of death row inmates remains at 2,414 individuals, with Pennsylvania ranking seventh among death row totals. California stands at first, with 690 inmates, followed by Florida with 323 inmates, and Texas with 199. 

When considering Pennsylvania’s total of three executed inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the ratio of inmates sitting on death row compared to those who actually face execution is a relatively small number. The state of Texas has executed 581 prisoners since the reinstatement, with most prisoners who reach death row facing undeniable execution. 

Despite this, the future is hopeful: new death sentence numbers are significantly decreasing on a yearly basis. Criminal justice reform is becoming a hot-button topic among state governments, with hopes that they will eliminate the death penalty nationwide growing as opposition to the sentence grows among the public. It is likely safe to say Pennsylvania will not see another death row execution for at least the remainder of Shapiro’s term as Governor.