Shapiro: No more execution warrants

And let me be absolutely clear on one point – this is not a statement on the integrity of individual capital convictions in Pennsylvania.

This is a fundamental statement of morality. Of what’s right and wrong. And I believe Pennsylvania must be on the right side of this issue.

— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) February 16, 2023

“For more than a decade, including when I assumed office as Attorney General, I believed that the death penalty should be reserved for the most heinous crimes – but that it was, indeed, a just punishment for those crimes,” Shapiro said in a Thursday press release. “However, when the first capital cases came to my desk in the AG’s office, I found myself repeatedly unwilling to seek the death penalty. When my son asked me why it as OK to kill someone as a punishment for killing someone, I couldn’t look him in the eye and explain why.”

The governor noted that his decision to not allow for executions during his tenure was not a “statement on the integrity of individual capital convictions in Pennsylvania.” However, he said that during his tenure as the state’s attorney general, “two critical truths became clear to me about the capital sentencing system in our Commonwealth: The system is fallible, and the outcome is irreversible.”

The announcement comes in the wake of increasing pressure for states to drop the death penalty entirely.

[I oppose the death penalty for similar reasons, although I certainly have a lot of sympathy for the pro-death-penalty positions. However, this is not the proper role of a governor, whom voters elect to enforce the law as written. Shapiro can certainly demand a repeal from the legislature and campaign for that policy, but state law still allows for juries to impose that penalty. It is Shapiro’s job to enforce that until the law changes. — Ed]