The death penalty in Pennsylvania is still on the books, but no one has been executed in the state since 1999, and a governor’s moratorium has blocked every scheduled execution since February 2015. Courts can still impose death sentences for first-degree murder, and people remain on death row, but as a practical matter no execution will be carried out under the current administration.
Why No Executions Are Happening
Governor Tom Wolf announced the moratorium on February 13, 2015, calling the state’s capital punishment system “ineffective, unjust, and expensive” and “an endless cycle of court proceedings.”1American Bar Association. Pennsylvania Governor Declares Moratorium on Death Penalty He pointed to six exonerations from Pennsylvania’s death row, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court committee report finding that poor defendants and defendants from minority racial groups were more likely to be sentenced to death, and taxpayer costs the administration estimated at $315 to $600 million since 1978. Wolf implemented the moratorium by issuing an individual reprieve to every person on death row, using the governor’s constitutional reprieve power.
Governor Josh Shapiro, who took office in January 2023, has continued the policy. Shapiro has said that “when an execution warrant comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve each and every time,” and he has done so when warrants have been issued — most recently in December 2025, when the Department of Corrections scheduled an execution for January 2, 2026, and Shapiro signed a reprieve the same day.
The moratorium is an executive action, not a change in the law. A future governor who chose not to issue reprieves could allow executions to resume without any new legislation.
What Crimes Can Carry a Death Sentence
Pennsylvania reserves capital punishment for one crime: first-degree murder, defined as an intentional killing.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 18 Section 2502 – Murder A first-degree conviction by itself is not enough. The prosecution must also prove at least one “aggravating circumstance” from a list set by statute.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 42 Section 9711 – Sentencing Procedure for Murder of the First Degree
Commonly alleged aggravating factors include:
- The victim was a law enforcement officer, firefighter, judge, or similar official killed in the line of duty
- Murder for hire, whether the defendant paid someone or was paid to kill
- Killing committed during another serious felony such as robbery, kidnapping, rape, or arson
- Torture, meaning the defendant inflicted extreme physical or psychological suffering on the victim
- A significant prior history of violent felony convictions
- A victim younger than 12 years old
- Multiple victims killed during the same criminal episode
The statute lists additional factors beyond these, but any one of them, if proved beyond a reasonable doubt, makes the case death-eligible.
The defense can offer mitigating evidence against a death sentence: the defendant’s age, severe mental illness or intellectual disability, extreme emotional disturbance, a minor role in the killing, or anything else relevant to the defendant’s character or the offense. There is no fixed list of mitigators, and the defense is free to raise whatever the jury should consider.
How Capital Sentencing Works
Pennsylvania uses a two-phase trial. The first phase decides guilt. If the jury convicts the defendant of first-degree murder, the same jury then holds a separate sentencing hearing.
At sentencing, the prosecution must prove any aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense must prove mitigating circumstances only by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not. The jury also hears victim impact evidence about the effect of the killing on the victim’s family.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 42 Section 9711 – Sentencing Procedure for Murder of the First Degree
For a death sentence, the jury must unanimously find at least one aggravating circumstance and conclude that the aggravators outweigh any mitigators. If aggravating circumstances exist but are not found to outweigh the mitigating ones, the sentence is life in prison. If the jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge sentences the defendant to life imprisonment. There is no middle ground. The only two possible outcomes of a capital sentencing hearing are death or life without parole.
Who Cannot Be Sentenced to Death
Federal constitutional rulings set a floor that applies in Pennsylvania. In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court held that executing a person with an intellectual disability violates the Eighth Amendment. In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the Court held that no one who was under 18 at the time of the crime can be sentenced to death. A Pennsylvania sentence imposed in either situation would be unconstitutional and could not be carried out.
Appeals
Every death sentence in Pennsylvania triggers an automatic appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. It happens by operation of law, not at the defendant’s request. If the state courts uphold the conviction and sentence, the defendant can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review federal constitutional issues.
After direct appeals, defendants can file post-conviction petitions in state court raising claims such as ineffective assistance of counsel or newly discovered evidence. Once state review is complete, a defendant can file a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court. Permission to appeal a habeas denial to the U.S. Court of Appeals is not automatic and must be granted by a judge, and the U.S. Supreme Court accepts only a handful of capital cases each year.
This layered process is a major reason Pennsylvania’s death row has been shrinking. Many sentences have been reversed on appeal because of trial errors, prosecutorial misconduct, or ineadequate defense representation. Combined with the moratorium, death sentences are still handed down but have not been carried out in more than two decades.
Method and Execution History
Lethal injection is Pennsylvania’s only authorized method of execution, using a barbiturate combined with a chemical paralytic agent administered intravenously.4Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes Title 61 Section 4304 – Method of Execution The state replaced electrocution with lethal injection in 1990.
Only three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume nationally in 1976. All three executions took place in the mid-to-late 1990s, and all three defendants had given up their remaining appeals. No one has been executed against their will in Pennsylvania in the modern era. The Department of Corrections maintains the current list of people under sentence of death.5Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Department of Corrections – Death Penalty
Efforts to Repeal the Death Penalty
Separate from the moratorium, there have been efforts to remove capital punishment from Pennsylvania law entirely. In October 2023, the state House Judiciary Committee voted 15 to 10 in favor of HB 999, a bill that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole. The bill has not passed the full legislature. Governor Shapiro has said he would sign a repeal bill if one reached his desk, but the political path to passage remains uncertain.