Pa. governor says death penalty flawed, imposes moratorium

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Newly elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is imposing a moratorium on the death penalty. He calls the state's current system of capital punishment "error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible."

The Democrat had announced during his fall campaign he intended to issue such an order.

Wolf said Friday the moratorium will remain in effect at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that's been studying the topic for about four years.

Pennsylvania currently has 183 men and three women on death row.

The state has only executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the last one in 1999.

All three had voluntarily given up their appeals.

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REACTION FROM PROSECUTORS:

The state prosecutors' association said the governor had no authority to impose such a moratorium, and said some sort of legal response was likely.

PENNSYLVANIA'S DEATH ROW:

The state currently has 183 men and three women on death row. The most recent addition is Raghunandan Yandamuri, who was sentenced in November for killing a 10-month-old baby and her grandmother in a botched ransom kidnapping.

NOTABLE DEATH ROW INMATES:

Among the condemned are George Banks, who killed 13 people, including five of his children, in 1982; Richard Baumhammers, who was convicted of killing five people in a 2000 shooting rampage that targeted ethnic minorities; John Lesko and Michael Travaglia, who killed a rookie police officer and three other people during an 1980 "kill for thrill" spree; and Mark Spotz, who shot his brother to death after an argument over a gerbil in 1995 and then went on to kill three women on successive days.

Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in the 1981 killing a Philadelphia police officer, was on death row for three decades in a case that drew international attention. He is now serving life without parole after his death sentence was thrown out.

RECENT HISTORY OF EXECUTIONS:

Pennsylvania has executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court revived the death penalty, each of whom had given up on his appeals. Gary Heidnik, one of the inspirations for Buffalo Bill character in "The Silence of the Lambs," was executed in 1999 for killing two women he had imprisoned in his Philadelphia home. Leon Moser was executed in 1995 for the 1985 murders of his wife and two daughters in suburban Philadelphia. Keith Zettlemoyer was executed in 1995 for the 1980 killing of a friend who planned to testify against him.

WHY PENNSYLVANIA HAS HAD FEW EXECUTIONS:

Some say there is opposition to the death penalty among judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or attribute it to aggressive tactics by lawyers who defend people facing execution. Others argue death sentences are overturned because of problems in how those cases are handled, and that capital defendants often do not receive adequate representation at trial.

DEATH ROW IN THE UNITED STATES:

The Death Penalty Information Center says there are currently 3,054 people awaiting execution across the country. Thirty-two states have the death penalty, while 18 states and Washington, D.C., prohibit it. Thirty-five people were executed in the U.S. last year.