[The Final Dakar]

Pennsylvania death penalty moratorium issued by Gov. Tom Wolf - The Morning Call

Newly elected Gov. Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in the state Friday, calling the current system of capital punishment "error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible."

"If we are to continue to administer the death penalty, we just take further steps to ensure that defendants have appropriate counsel at every stage of their prosecution, that the sentence is applied fairly and proportionally, and that we eliminate the risk of executing an innocent," Wolf said in a memorandum announcing the policy.

"This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 150 people have been exonerated from death row nationwide, including six men in Pennsylvania."

"He has rejected the decisions of juries that wrestled with the facts and the law before unanimously imposing the death penalty, disregarded a long line of decisions made by Pennsylvania and federal judges, ignored the will of the Legislature, and ultimately turned his back on the silenced victims of cold-blooded killers," the association said in a written statement.

Wolf, a Democrat, had promised a death penalty moratorium during his fall campaign against his predecessor, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

Wow, a campaign promise kept

[BadKosh]

Sure. Everyone in prison is innocent.

[OAW]

Nope. But the HUNDREDS of people who've been freed from death row due to DNA evidence are innocent. Which is the point after all.

OAW

[reader50]

Those hundreds would be nationwide, I assume.

[OAW]

^^^^

Indeed.

OAW