Sep 10, 2025 By Mike Jones 5 min read

Arguing that prosecutors in Pennsylvania are afforded “great deference” in how they handle criminal cases, Attorney General Dave Sunday is asking the state Supreme Court to reject a petition attempting to stop Washington County’s district attorney ability from pursuing the death penalty against homicide defendants.

The attorney general’s office filed the friend of the court brief Friday in response to the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation’s petition to the high court asking for restrictions to be placed on District Attorney Jason Walsh over claims he has used the death penalty for political purposes.

“The essence of their complaint is that the District Attorney is improperly making homicide cases capital by raising unsupported aggravating circumstances. But they fail to show that this claim cannot be addressed in the ordinary course,” the response states.

The response, which was written by Deputy Attorney General Hugh Burns Jr. on behalf of Sunday, is part of back-and-forth arguments over the death penalty between prosecutors, attorneys and even another homicide defendant ever since the Atlantic Center filed its petition against Walsh on July 22.

The Atlantic Center is representing defendants Jordan Clarke of Peters Township and Joshua George of Smith Township, both of whom are facing the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in the separate cases involving the deaths of their infant sons. The center is asking the high court to exercise “extraordinary jurisdiction” and use its “King’s Bench” powers to restrict Walsh’s ability to pursue the death penalty over claims he has utilized it for political purposes or to coerce suspects into taking plea deals or to testify against co-defendants.

Walsh has previously said the petition is merely an attempt by death penalty opponents to abolish capital punishment in Pennsylvania.

One of the claims by the Atlantic Center is that Walsh has overused his threat of the death penalty, pursuing nearly a dozen capital murder cases since he was elevated to acting district attorney in August 2021. At one point, Washington County had about one-quarter of all death penalty cases in Pennsylvania despite having less than 2% of the state’s population.

But the attorney general argued that the petitioners should not be able to rely on a “disproportionality claim” because there are a variety of factors that can work for or against death penalty cases.

“It is legally frivolous. They argue that the Washington County District Attorney has instituted a

‘wildly disproportionate’ number of capital cases in comparison with the rest of the Commonwealth,” the attorney general’s response states. “Without citing authority, they imply that this is impermissible. But petitioner’s argument presumes a proportionality requirement that does not exist. Prosecutors are not required to keep the number of capital cases in their jurisdictions proportionate to those in the Commonwealth at large.”

Instead, the attorney general’s office takes note that there are some prosecutors who may decide not to pursue the death penalty under any circumstances, which showcases why district attorneys are given wide latitude to make their own decisions when handling criminal cases.

“Indeed, were such proportionality required it would presumably work both ways,” the response states. “A district attorney who refused ever to seek the death penalty would be subject to the same judicial review of his discretionary decisions as a district attorney who sought it ‘too much.'”

Sunday’s office also took exception with the Atlantic Center’s suggestion that an out-of-county judge be brought in to review all pending homicide cases in Washington County, put restrictions on how the death penalty is sought in future cases and ask the attorney general to take over prosecution for current cases. In addition, the attorney general questioned the Atlantic Center’s assertion that Washington County Court of Common Pleas judges are not holding the district attorney to account, noting that one of the pending death penalty cases was dismissed earlier this year due to lack of evidence.

“They call for this Court to recuse the entire Washington County bench, but they identify no evidence at all to justify such a drastic measure,” the response states. “Likewise, petitioners’ request for this Court to micromanage the District Attorney’s discretionary decisions, by appointing a master or out-of-county judge to supervise charging, is both impracticable and contrary to the constitutional imperative of separation of powers.”

Attorneys for the Atlantic Center were preparing to file a response to the attorney general’s brief in support of Walsh’s position, although it had not been filed as of press time Tuesday. But in a statement, Atlantic Center staff attorney Frances Harvey bristled with the attorney general’s response in how it characterized the organization’s petition.

“The Attorney General’s brief completely misrepresents our position, which is, simply, that the DA is abusing his discretion in seeking the death penalty improperly,” Harvey said.

The period in which to respond is expected to close Friday, although the state Supreme Court has extended that deadline multiple times as entities have asked to join in arguments. It’s not known when the high court will rule on the matter.