“The Commonwealth shouldn’t be in the business of putting people to death. Period.” And with that succinct announcement by newly minted Governor Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania applied for membership in the civilized world. After declaring that he would continue Governor Wolf’s moratorium on executions, the Governor went further, speaking “to the fundamental question as to whether death is a just and appropriate punishment for the state to inflict on its citizens.” The system is fallible, he said, and the outcome is irreversible. Rejecting the idea that our capital punishment system is flawed but fixable, he called on the General Assembly to “work with me to abolish the death penalty once and for all here in Pennsylvania.”
Skeptics like myself had reason to expect much less when we filed into the Mosaic Community Church on February 16th. As our former Attorney General, Mr. Shapiro had hardly appeared the abolitionist. He himself admitted that he had “evolved” on the issue, and evolve he certainly did: he could not have been stronger in declaring his recently found moral opposition to state-sanctioned executions. But while we should acclaim this new and strong ally in Harrisburg, we might not want to celebrate too soon. Indeed, it is important that we learn from recent history. I am referring, of course, to our former president and his despicable and bloody reign of terror on our federal death row. Like Pennsylvania, the federal government had only executed three people in the modern era, the last in 2003. But in the final six months of the Trump administration, the twice-impeached president, working in tandem with Attorney General Barr, executed 13 people. Six of them occurred after he had been soundly beaten in the 2020 election.
Following Governor Shapiro’s announcement, we are now assured that such a spree will not take place in Pennsylvania during his term. But a moratorium declaration, and even a governor’s sincere wish to end capital punishment in the Commonwealth, will only take us so far. As long as there is a death row, there is a risk the next governor will end the moratorium, just as Trump ended the unannounced but very real moratorium by President Obama; and Pennsylvania still has more than 100 people on its death row. It’s not hard to bring this home – just close your eyes and try to imagine that Doug Mastriano had beaten Mr. Shapiro in the 2022 election.
Moratoriums have another huge limit as well, in that they do not prevent individual prosecutors from seeking the ultimate punishment. There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania, and that means 67 District Attorneys. Each has his or her (actually mostly his – 78% are men) own idea of what a capital case looks like, and each under the law has the full discretion to do so with virtually no restraints. This is particularly unsettling given the makeup of the 67 – there is not a single person of color on the list. https://www.pdaa.org/da-directory/ (You will note only 66 in the directory – Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is not a member, given his objections to the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association policies). So while Governor Shapiro has promised not to execute anyone, there are 57 people awaiting trial in pending capital cases as this is written. 21% of them are in Washington County. You don’t know where Washington County is? We’re not surprised, as it has less than 2% of Pennsylvania’s population. You see the problem.
But this blog isn’t being written to rain on anyone’s parade. Our governor has taken a huge step towards bringing Pennsylvania in line with the rest of the Northeast, and it is up to the rest of us to make sure the General Assembly puts an abolition bill on his desk. In the meantime, it is critically important that we not assume the fight is over – in Pennsylvania, there will always be a Doug Mastriano waiting in the wings.
