Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro says he won't allow executions
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Gov. Josh Shapiro says he will not sign any death warrants coming across his desk while in office.
He made the announcement Thursday morning at the Mosaic Community Church in West Philadelphia.
"Pennsylvania should do what 25 other states have done in outlawing the death penalty or refusing to impose it – including many of our neighbors such as New Jersey, Maryland, and West Virginia," he said.
The governor also called on Pennsylvania lawmakers to stop conducting studies on the death penalty "once and for all" and stop considering laws that would change the way it's carried out.
"We shouldn't aim to fix this system, the commonwealth should not be in the business of putting people to death, period. That is my view," Shapiro said.
Shapiro, the state's former attorney general, said he was not often willing to seek the death penalty when cases came across his desk.
But when a gunman entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and killed 11 worshipping Jewish people, Shapiro said he first believed the killer should be sentenced to death.
Then he spoke with the victims' families.
"They told me, that even after all the pain and anguish, they did not want the killer put to death. He should spend the rest of his life in prison they said, but the state should not take his life as punishment for him taking the lives of their loved ones. That moved me. And that's stayed with me."
Today, I'm announcing I will not issue any execution warrants during my term as Governor.
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) February 16, 2023
When one comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve every time — and I’m asking the General Assembly to send me a bill abolishing the death penalty in Pennsylvania once and for all.
The last execution in Pennsylvania was by lethal injection in July 1999.