This week, House Bills 99 and 888, legislation to abolish the death penalty in Pennsylvania, advanced out of committee along party lines. I am proud to be a cosponsor of both bills.
The modern death penalty framework has long been shaped by legal concerns about fairness. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court halted capital punishment in Furman v. Georgia, finding its application “arbitrary” and “capricious.” States, including Pennsylvania, revised their laws, and capital punishment was reinstated there in 1974.
The legislature took action to revise the death penalty in 1978. Today, the death penalty remains legal in Pennsylvania, though executions have been under a gubernatorial moratorium since 2015, a policy continued by Governor Josh Shapiro in 2023. Absent that executive action, executions could resume at any time. While the state primarily uses lethal injection, an inmate may request electrocution.
HB 99 and HB 888 repeal the death penalty for first-degree murder, replacing it with life without parole, to address persistent concerns about fairness, cost, and irreversibility.
If it makes you uncomfortable to consider the process or means of inmate execution in our Commonwealth, you are not alone. A 2025 Susquehanna Polling and Research survey found that 58% of Pennsylvanians support alternatives to capital punishment, while only 29% support the death penalty.
Concerns about the death penalty are concrete and systemic. Its application has proven uneven and unreliable, with outcomes influenced not only by the facts of a crime but also by factors such as race, geography, available resources, and the quality of legal representation.
The data makes these disparities clear. A 2019 review found that Black and Hispanic Americans represent about 31% of the U.S. population but account for roughly 53% of those on death row. Black Americans alone make up over 41% of the death row population despite comprising about 13% of the country. At the federal level, disparities are similarly stark—following the 1994 crime bill, nearly three-quarters of defendants facing death penalty recommendations were people of color.
A 2022 report found that Pennsylvania ranked seventh in the terms of the largest death row population in the country, and that, among states with at least 10 people on death row, Pennsylvania had the sixth-highest share of minority inmates. More than 60% of those on death row are people of color, even though over 80% of the state’s population is white.
Geography further skews capital punishment outcomes. A small number of jurisdictions drive the vast majority of death sentences: just 2% of counties account for more than 60% of individuals on state death rows, and five counties, four in Texas, are responsible for over one-fifth of executions in the past 50 years.
These patterns are not incidental; they undermine the fairness and consistency that any justice system requires and are a central reason I support full repeal. At the press conference on the bills, Francis Harvey of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation commented, “Death sentences in the Commonwealth are reserved not for the worst of the worst, but for the poorest of the poor, for people with serious mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities.”
Understandably, a core concern of the death penalty is the risk of making an irreversible error. The risk of executing an innocent person is not theoretical. Across the country, since 1973, 202 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted. Thirteen of those wrongfully convicted were convicted in this commonwealth. This means that “for every eight people executed, one person on death row has been exonerated.”
The death penalty allows for wide prosecutorial discretion, creating the potential for arbitrary or politically motivated decisions. The power to seek the ultimate punishment should not depend on geography, or individual ambition, or the skill set of one’s legal representation. Nearly 100 death sentences in Pennsylvania have been overturned due to inadequate representation, including failures to investigate critical mitigating evidence such as a defendant’s background or mental health history. The quality of legal representation had a direct impact on sentencing outcomes. In Philadelphia, more than 200 death sentences were imposed in cases where defendants were represented by undertrained and underfunded court-appointed counsel, whereas no defendant represented by the Philadelphia Public Defender’s specialized homicide unit was ever sentenced to death.
This issue has been debated in Pennsylvania for decades, with limited legislative movement despite growing concern and public support. Last session, state Rep. Chris Rabb’s HB 999 passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 15–10 vote on October 31, 2023, with bipartisan support. Earlier efforts, including HB 999 (2021) and HB 2211 (2019), were introduced with bipartisan co-sponsorship but did not advance beyond committee. This week’s vote represents another important step forward.
Pennsylvania has not carried out an execution since 1999, and it has been more than 60 years since the Commonwealth executed someone who had not exhausted their appeals. The use of the death penalty has steadily declined. Where once 10 to 20 death sentences were issued annually, some recent years have seen none at all. Prosecutors are increasingly reluctant to seek it, and juries are more likely to impose life sentences.
The death penalty is also extraordinarily expensive. A 2016 analysis found that Pennsylvania spent at least $816 million more pursuing death sentences than it would have on life without parole cases, roughly $272 million per execution. Capital cases effectively require two trials, one for guilt and one for sentencing, followed by lengthy, complex appeals, all of which are borne by taxpayers.
Pennsylvania’s underfunded indigent defense system further undermines the fairness of capital punishment. Counties shoulder most of the cost, and in death penalty cases, defense attorneys often lack the resources needed to provide a full and proper defense.
Per the Capital Star article on these bills, 27 states still have the death penalty, and 103 people remain on death row. Pennsylvania has operated under a moratorium on executions since 2015, and while I appreciate Governor Josh Shapiro’s continuation of that policy, a moratorium is not a permanent solution. As long as the death penalty remains law, it can be reinstated at any time.
Pennsylvania is the last state in the Northeast that still allows the death penalty. Repealing it would be a meaningful step toward a more equitable, effective, and fiscally responsible justice system. Abolishing the death penalty is not about being soft on crime; it is about ensuring accountability in a way that is fair, consistent, and free from the risk of irreversible mistakes, while directing resources toward policies that actually improve public safety and strengthen communities.
I remain committed to advancing legislation that reflects these values and moves Pennsylvania toward a more just system.