Bill To Repeal Death Penalty In PA Follows Shapiro's Announcement

HARRISBURG, PA — A day after Gov. Josh Shapiro publicly announced that he'd had a change of heart regarding his long-standing support for capital punishment, Pennsylania Democrats introduced a new bill that would abolish it.

Supporters of the new bill do not cite the same reasons as Shapiro, who remained a defender of the integrity of the criminal justice process that results in capital convictions even in his speech Thursday.

"The most egregious fact is that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has already killed people who were innocent of the crimes for which they were put death," State Rep. Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia) said in a co-sponsorship memorandum Friday. "And even one innocent life taken at the hands of the state is one too many."

Where Rabb and others on the left line up with Shapiro, however, is the legislation itself. On Thursday, Shapiro called for the General Assembly to bring him a bill to sign to strike down the death penalty.

RELATED: Gov. Shapiro Reverses Course, Urges State To Abolish Death Penalty

Rabb said the new bill will mirror previously proposed legislation, House Bill 999. He pointed towards a tide of public opinion against the death penalty, and argued that it is not an effective deterrent. Individuals put on death row almost always become involved in lengthy appeals, "making it more likely that they die of old age rather than lethal injection."

"Legislators from across the ideological spectrum have coalesced to end capital punishment in their respective states because they acknowledge the various reasons the government putting people to death should not persist," Rabb wrote.

A total of 23 states, along with the District of Columbia, have already outlawed the death penalty. While Pennsylvania does not outlaw capital punishment, only three individuals have been executed in Pennsylvania since 1976. The most recent was in 1999.

Shapiro vowed Thursday not to sign any executions during his term as governor, following in the footsteps of the policy of his predecessor, Gov. Tom Wolf.

"When the first capital cases came to my desk in the AG’s office, I found myself repeatedly unwilling to seek the death penalty," he told the gathered crowd. "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."

But Shapiro was also sure to underline that his new stance was not about wrongful convictions.

RELATED: PA Weighs Change To Death Penalty Law

"Let me be absolutely clear on one point – this is not a statement on the integrity of individual capital convictions in Pennsylvania," he said, noting that "as Attorney General, I enforced the law without fear or favor and pursued justice for victims."

In Pennsylvania, 11 men have been exonerated from death row, including five since 2019.