Abortion clinics still open for business.
Gov. Tom Wolf this morning announced a moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania.
The halting of executions will remain in effect until the governor has received and reviewed a report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment, the governor’s office said. The task force was established by the Senate in 2011.
“Today’s action comes after significant consideration and reflection,” Mr. Wolf said in the statement. “This moratorium is in no way an expression of sympathy for the guilty on death row, all of whom have been convicted of committing heinous crimes.
“This decision is based on a flawed system that has been proven to be an endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust and expensive.”
Mr. Wolf said during his campaign for governor that he supports a moratorium on the death penalty.
In a first step, Mr. Wolf granted a temporary reprieve to convicted killer Terrance Williams, who was scheduled to be executed on March 4.
In September 2014, then-Gov. Tom Corbett signed a temporary reprieve of a scheduled execution to allow the state more time to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injection.[…]
The state’s Office of the Victim Advocate said it would work to contact people affected by the moratorium.
“We understand how upsetting this news can be for the hundreds of crime victims who have had to endure the emotional roller coaster of the death penalty process in Pennsylvania,” the office’s statement said.
It added that it hopes the advisory commission’s work is completed quickly so that the moratorium is resolved and “our crime victims are no longer held in legal limbo as to the status of their offender’s case.”
There are 32 states that have a death penalty law still on the books, and 18 states that have ended it, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Maryland was the most recent state to abolish it, in 2013.