Dec 17, 2025 By Jon Andreassi 4 min read

Referred to as a “hotspot of capital prosecution,” Washington County was the primary focus of a panel discussion hosted by an anti-death penalty group Tuesday morning.

The Philadelphia-based Atlantic Center for Capital Representation held the virtual meeting to highlight a recent report on capital punishment cases throughout the country.

Frances Harvey, the interim executive director of ACCR, said in recent years Pennsylvania prosecutors have been seeking the death penalty less, but that Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh is “bucking that trend.”

“As a result, the county has become one of the hotspots of capital prosecution in Pennsylvania,” Harvey said. “At one point, Washington had over a quarter of Pennsylvania’s death penalty cases in a county with less than 2% of the population.”

Earlier this year, ACCR intervened on behalf of Peters Township resident Jordan Clarke and Smith Township resident Joshua George and petitioned the state Supreme Court to exercise “extreme jurisdiction” and block Walsh from seeking the death penalty.

Walsh at the time called the ACCR an “anti-death penalty liberal think tank” and dismissed the petition as “without merit.”

George was recently acquitted of a homicide charge in the death of his 6-month-old son, Oliver. Clarke is awaiting trial in the death of his 11-week-old son, Sawyer.

The ACCR accuses Walsh of pressuring Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco to rule Sawyer Clarke’s death a homicide to bolster his candidacy in the 2023 election. Warco provided an affidavit claiming that Walsh told him, “You know I need this to be a homicide. I need it to win an election.”

Walsh vehemently denied Warco’s claims, saying they were “categorically false and it’s complete idiocy.”

Canonsburg parents James Riley May and Shannon McKnight were also facing the death penalty in the death of their 3-month-old daughter, Navaeah, but ultimately pleaded to drug delivery resulting in death.

Kylie Lynn Wilt, of Charleroi, avoided a potential death sentence by pleading no contest to a lesser homicide charge after her son, Archer Hollis, was found sealed in the wall of her apartment, and agreeing to testify against Alan Wayne Hollis, Archer’s father.

Harvey suggested Tuesday that Walsh has sought the death penalty for political purposes, and as a tool to coerce guilty pleas and testimony.

“Since becoming DA in 2021, Walsh has pursued capital charges in 11 of the 18 homicide cases he has handled. Ten of which were in the run-up to his election campaign in 2023,” Harvey said.

Panelists suggested this stands in contrast to nationwide trends in the number of death sentences and public perception toward capital punishment.

According to a study from the Death Penalty Information Center, only 22 people were sentenced to death in 2025, while there were more than 50 capital cases. The study states that 56% of juries in these cases recommended a life sentence over the death penalty.

However, executions jumped from 25 last year to 48 this year. Florida contributed heavily to this number, executing 19 inmates in 2025.

The study also cites a Gallup poll this year that shows a 50-year low in support for the death penalty at 52% approval, and 44% opposed, the highest recorded opposition for capital punishment since May 1966.

Speaking at Tuesday’s panel was Sabrina Butler-Smith, who spent more than two years on death row in Mississippi following a wrongful conviction in the death of her 9-month-old son in 1989. She was convicted in 1990, and the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed the conviction in 1992.

“I am a living witness to say that once I got out, my life has been hard. Mentally, physically, emotionally, all of it. You name it. I have trust issues, PTSD. All of it, because of the things that happened to me being incarcerated, which I will never forget,” Butler-Smith said.

Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, used Butler-Smith’s case to say it’s “not surprising” many of the capital cases in Washington County involve child victims.

“Because those cases are highly, highly emotional, and they provoke outrage,” Dunham said.