PITTSBURGH — In November 2019, Rahmael Holt was sentenced to death in the murder of New Kensington police officer Brian Shaw, who was killed during a traffic stop.
Here's a look at Pennsylvania's Death Row:
- Currently 136 inmates
- All are men
- Housed at SCI-Greene
- Executions carried out at SCI-Rockview
LIST OF PEOPLE SENTENCED TO DEATH PENALTY IN PENNSYLVANIA
In 2015, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf put a moratorium on the death penalty. At the time, he called the state's capital punishment system "error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible."
The state has only executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976. The last person executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Heidnik in 1999. He was convicted of murdering two women and kidnapping, torturing and raping six other women in Philadelphia.
There are four men sentenced to death from Westmoreland as the prosecuting county right now.
- Melvin Knight (2018)
- Kevin Murphy (2013)
- Ricky Smyrnes (2013)
- John Lesko (1995)
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