Feb 19, 2015 4 min read

Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf declared a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania. Some people are up in arms over this, and we wonder why, because Pennsylvania really doesn’t have a death penalty.

In announcing his decision, Wolf said Pennsylvania’s death penalty, as it exists today, “is a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings, as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive.”

It’s impossible to argue with this.

Pennsylvania has conducted only three executions since 1978, when the state reinstated capital punishment. The last person put to death, “House of Horrors” killer Gary Heidnik, was executed in 1999, not even in the current century, and he might very well be alive today had he not abandoned his court appeals. The other two people who were executed did the same.

The main reason we have virtually no executions is death row inmates are able to file a seemingly endless string of appeals. Some of these prisoners have been on death row for more than 30 years without serious threat of having their sentences carried out. As such, it can’t even be claimed the death penalty is a deterrent to crime, or even a punishment.

As Wolf noted, there’s also a significant element of injustice to the death penalty. If you are poor or black, your chances of ending up on death row are significantly higher than if you were rich and white. It’s safe to say none of those facing execution in our state were afforded an O.J. Simpson-level defense.

Then there’s the extremely high cost of the state having to maintain a never-ending legal battle to preserve the death sentences. It’s in the millions of dollars.

We’ve also seen, all around the country, executions that were botched so badly the process definitely crossed the line into the realm of cruel and unusual punishment.

Finally, one might argue letting a killer rot in a cell for decades is a greater punishment than taking his or her life.

But despite all that, there are those who are taking the governor to task for his move.

House Speaker Mike Turzai and Majority Leader Dave Reed, both Republicans, accused Wolf, a Democrat, of “checking off another box on his list of commitments to his political supporters.”

They said in a news release, “His death penalty moratorium is, in reality, a political statement without public discourse or input. Or, apparently, without any consideration for those the victims left behind.”

Turzai and Reed agreed the state should have a discussion about the death penalty, and they said they’ll be “doing just that” in the House Judiciary Committee. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the results of that legislative process. In a story Friday about Wolf’s decision, the Philadelphia Inquirer noted the state Senate, way back in 2011, formed a task force to study the death penalty. Its report was due in 2013. It’s still not done.

The governor also faces dissent from within his own party. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams filed suit against Wolf, accusing him of committing a “lawless act” by imposing the moratorium and, at the same time, granting a reprieve to a convicted killer from Williams’ jurisdiction who had a March 4 execution date.

It should be noted Williams, like Wolf, is a politician. What Wolf, Williams, Turzai, Reed and other politicians around the state should do is have a reasoned discussion about the state’s death penalty and determine whether it is a system worth maintaining.

As currently crafted and applied, we would argue it is most definitely not.