Jul 22, 2025 By Mike Jones 7 min read

A group of Philadelphia attorneys specializing in capital murder cases is asking the state Supreme Court to restrict Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh’s ability to pursue the death penalty, accusing him of using it as a political tool and coercing defendants into cooperating with investigators or accepting plea bargains.

The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed the petition Tuesday morning asking Pennsylvania’s high court to exercise “extraordinary jurisdiction” and “King’s Bench” powers over Walsh’s threat of the death penalty against nearly a dozen criminal defendants since he was elevated to district attorney four years ago.

“Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh has been abusing the discretion entrusted to him by using the death penalty to coerce guilty pleas, force cooperation from defendants, and accrue political capital,” the petition states. “Petitioners are capital defendants in Washington County whose rights have been violated by DA Walsh’s abuse of the death penalty. As this is an issue of immediate public importance and a settled matter of constitutional law, named applicants and similarly situated individuals in Washington County ask this court to exercise its powers of Extraordinary Jurisdiction under (state law).”

The petition was filed on behalf of Jordan Clarke of Peters Township and Joshua George of Smith Township – two defendants facing the death penalty if convicted of first-degree homicide in separate cases involving the alleged beating deaths of their children – asking the court to block Walsh from prosecuting them as capital cases.

“D.A. Walsh has abused his power,” Atlantic Center Executive Director Marc Bookman said in a written statement Tuesday morning that coincided with the filing. “He is using the death penalty as a political tool and a cruel threat to coerce people into giving up their constitutional rights under a wrongful threat of death. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must intervene to stop his abuse of the law and his office.”

Walsh has indicated he would pursue the death penalty against nearly a dozen defendants since he was elevated to the top prosecutor’s role in August 2021 following the death of District Attorney Gene Vittone. Walsh, who had previously served as Vittone’s first assistant district attorney, ramped up the threat of pursuing the death penalty, announcing capital murder cases against 10 defendants over the next two years in the lead-up to the 2023 general election. Since winning a full term as district attorney that year, Walsh’s office has indicated it would pursue the death penalty against just one defendant.

At its peak last year, Washington County had 12 pending death penalty cases, which was a little more than one-quarter of all capital cases in Pennsylvania despite the county having less than 2% of the state’s population.

In the past month, four death penalty cases have been resolved. Kylie Wilt pleaded no contest last month to third-degree murder and was given a sentence of 18 to 36 years in prison in the death of her son, Archer, who was entombed in the wall in her Charleroi apartment. Shannon McKnight and James May IV each pleaded guilty recently to one felony count of drug delivery resulting in death and were each sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in prison for the fentanyl poisoning death of their infant daughter, Navaeah, inside their Canonsburg apartment.

The criminal homicide case against Jah Sutton was dismissed by Washington County Judge Traci McDonald on July 11 after determining there was no evidence linking the defendant to the February 2021 shooting of a Donora convenience store worker. Investigators said they found Sutton’s DNA on a bullet casing recovered at the scene, but there was no evidence she was anywhere near the store or planned the shooting, McDonald ruled. Walsh has said he plans to appeal McDonald’s decision to the state Superior Court.

“In most counties in Pennsylvania, these cases wouldn’t be death penalty cases,” said Frances Harvey, who is a staff attorney at the Atlantic Center. “DA Walsh is well outside the boundaries of the law. Pursuing death against these people is unconstitutional and cruel.”

Walsh said Tuesday morning that he was aware of the filing but hadn’t yet reviewed it. He called the petition a “liberal Hail Mary” in an effort to lobby the courts or state Legislature to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania.

“It’s without merit by an anti-death penalty liberal think tank,” Walsh said Tuesday. “The law is the law is the law. … If they don’t like it, they need to talk to the Legislature.”

He said Clarke and George – the two defendants represented in the petition to the Supreme Court – are accused of “brutal baby beatings,” and that the high volume of death penalty cases came “in a large amount in a small space of time” after he was elevated to district attorney in August 2021.

Clarke, 39, is accused of assaulting his 11-week-old son, Sawyer, who died May 24, 2022, a day after an incident at the father’s Peters Township home. Attorneys for Clarke, who was charged with homicide and other felony counts two weeks after his son’s death, previously claimed he tripped and fell while holding the boy, causing the injuries. Clarke later filed a lawsuit against Walsh and other county officials over the decision to hold Sawyer’s body for several months rather than returning the remains to the family, although that lawsuit was dismissed by a visiting senior judge.

George, 33, is accused of assaulting his 6-month-old son, Oliver, inside his Smith Township home on the morning of Dec. 30, 2021, before taking the boy and two siblings to their grandparents to be watched for the day. The child died four days later at a Pittsburgh hospital. Defense attorneys for George, who is facing homicide and other felony charges, have filed motions questioning the timeline of when the child may have suffered the fatal injuries.

The petition asserts that the evidence in most of the capital murder cases would be able to secure a first-degree murder conviction, making it unwarranted to pursue the death penalty. It also claims the “arbitrary seeking of the death penalty has become a crisis in Washington County,” and notes the state Supreme Court has used its “extraordinary jurisdiction” in death penalty cases in the past.

“Because of the abuse of prosecutorial discretion in Washington County, Petitioners are unnecessarily and unconstitutionally facing the threat of an improper capital prosecution – a threat that brings with it the possibility of a coerced guilty plea, a lengthy death-qualification jury process, and an extreme cost to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Even those who may ultimately get relief spend years in jail without the possibility of bail, while bearing the psychological burden of a looming capital trial,” the petition states. “DA Walsh’s abuse of discretion is also responsible for intolerable strain on the defense bar and the Washington County budget.”

Due to the financial burden placed on the county, the law center questioned whether it is able to adequately fund the number of defense attorneys needed to represent all of the defendants.

“No county has a bottomless well of money to fund defense teams representing indigents facing capital punishment,” the petition states. “The excessive, abusive, and coercive use of the death penalty by District Attorney Walsh has surely strained Washington County’s ability to fund constitutionally adequate defenses.”

The petition asks the Supreme Court to preclude Walsh from seeking the death penalty against Clarke and George, and in all other cases moving forward without approval by an out-of-county judge. The petition also requests a master be appointed to supervise Walsh’s office, specifically with the authority to review each decision to seek the death penalty, and be required to consult with the state Attorney General’s office regarding any decision to pursue capital homicide cases. Finally, the petition requests that an out-of-county judge be assigned to review every case in which a defendant has been charged with capital murder in Washington County since 2021, alleging the Washington County Court of Common Pleas has “failed to regulate the improper use of the death penalty” by Walsh’s office.