WFMZ-TV posts, "15 years without an execution: the death penalty in Pennsylvania," by Jamie Stover.
Pennsylvania's Governor Tom Corbett has issued his thirty-sixth execution warrant.
Michael Parrish, from Monroe County, is scheduled for execution in October after being convicted of killing his girlfriend and baby.
But according to experts, if the current trend continues, it could be decades before that ever happens.
"Anyone who fights the death penalty today can go on for 15 to 25 years on death row," said Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.
Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the United States for the most people on death row.
Close to 200 people currently have a death sentence, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
But the state has executed just three people in the last 35 years.
"Michael Parrish scheduled to die on Oct. 14 for killing girlfriend, own son," is by Andrew Scott of the Pocono Record.
While declining to discuss specifics about Parrish's or any other particular case, the Federal Public Defender's Office in Harrisburg, which represents death row inmates during the federal court appeal process after the state Supreme Court has upheld convictions against those inmates, said Pennsylvania executions almost never take place on their initially scheduled dates.
Once the state Supreme Court upholds a conviction against a death row inmate, the inmate has the right to file a federal Post-Conviction Relief Act motion challenging how his/her case was handled in the lower courts, according to the Federal Public Defender's Office. The inmate can also file a federal habeas corpus motion after the federal PCRA motion, challenging the state Supreme Court decision.
There have been 414 stays of execution out of the 420 execution warrants signed by Pennsylvania governors since the state's death penalty was reinstated in 1978, according to state Department of Corrections records. This is due to most of the execution warrants being signed prematurely, before death row inmates have even gotten to file federal PCRA motions, said the Federal Public Defender's Office.
Earlier coverage from Pennsylvania begins at the link.
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