Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s recent declaration that he will sign no death warrants is emboldening lawmakers who want to abolish executions in the Keystone State.
To that end, state Representative Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia) is circulating a memorandum asking colleagues to cosponsor a measure he plans to offer ending the state’s death penalty.
“Pennsylvania should join the 23 other states that have abolished the death penalty,” Rabb wrote. “Legislators from across the ideological spectrum have coalesced to end capital punishment in their respective states because they acknowledge the various reasons the government putting people to death should not persist.”
Since 1976, the year the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, only three Pennsylvania killers met their end via execution. Republican Governor Tom Ridge signed all three death warrants. The most recent of the three was Gary Heidnik, a 55-year-old serial kidnapper and racist who killed two women and died by lethal injection on July 6, 1999.
In 2015, shortly after being sworn into office, Shapiro’s Democratic predecessor Tom Wolf promised he would sign no death warrants, prompting Republicans who then controlled the state House of Representatives to offer a resolution condemning the pledge. The resolution passed on a largely party-line vote, but with seven Republicans in opposition and 11 Democrats in support.
In remarks at the Mosaic Community Church in Philadelphia on Thursday, Shapiro said he came to the same conclusion Wolf did having “considered every aspect of Pennsylvania’s capital sentencing system, reflected on my conscience and weighed the tremendous responsibilities I have as governor.” Flanking Shapiro were far-left political leaders from the city including Senators Vincent Hughes and Nikil Saval as well as Representative Rick Krajewski and Mayor Jim Kenney.
Senate Republicans issued measured responses to the governor’s promise, suggesting it was dismissive of the concerns of law-enforcement professionals and disrespectful of those mourning homicide victims.
“For us to learn of Governor Shapiro’s position on the death penalty only minutes before it was announced on his Twitter account is a rash approach to an issue of this magnitude,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) said in a statement. “Any changes to close access to an element of punishment must appropriately consider the families of murder victims and the critical perspective of law enforcement.”
Republicans control the Pennsylvania Senate 28-22, so even if Rabb gets his bill through the Democrat-controlled House, the legislation almost certainly will not reach Shapiro’s desk.
The representative principally bases his case against the death penalty on the possibility that it could kill an innocent person. In his memo, Rabb insisted the commonwealth has put wrongly convicted defendants to death, though he did not name names.
He furthermore cited survey data from Gallup, Inc. indicating Americans’ backing of capital punishment has waned. While support for the death penalty has declined from a high of 80 percent in the early 1990s, 55 percent of Americans told the polling organization in 2022 that they favor the practice whereas 42 percent said they do not.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Josh Shapiro” by Josh Shapiro. Background Photo “Pennsylvania State Capitol” by Dough4872. CC BY-SA 4.0.
