Since the commonwealth reinstated the death penalty in 1978, three inmates have been executed; all had dropped their appeals. At least seven times that number have passed away, most of natural causes such as cancer or heart failure, while awaiting execution, according to an informal Corrections Department tally.
To find a Pennsylvania inmate unwillingly put to death, you have to go back almost half a century to the last use of the electric chair.
There are several possible explanations for this.
"I think it is indicative of a split — people want the death penalty but don't want a lot of executions," said Richard Dieter of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
Supporters of the death penalty attribute the recent dearth to resistance in the courts.
"It would be ironic to repeal the death penalty, if the people believe it's an appropriate punishment in a very small number of cases, merely because opponents of the death penalty have tried to frustrate its operation," Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Ronald Eisenberg said.
Opponents take a different view.
Defense attorneys say there's good reason for the modern reluctance, given recent high-profile exonerations of death row inmates. Last year, Nicholas Yarris, freed from Pennsylvania's death row in 2004 after 23 years behind bars on murder and rape convictions, reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the county in which he was prosecuted.
"When you look at some of the people who have been exonerated, it's quite a frightening thing to know that we could have been executing an innocent person," said Charles Cunningham of the Defender Association of Philadelphia. "It's bad enough to put an innocent person in jail, but to take that person's life, it's horrifying."
What's your view? Is the killing of innocent people every once in a while a small price to pay for the great benefits we derive from the death penalty? It's quite similar to the gun question isn't it? About guns we ask, is the gun violence a small price we must pay for the continued right for the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners to exercise their rights? About capital punishment we ask, is the occasional anomaly a small price we must pay for the continued benefits to society of executing these guys? I say "no" and "no." How about you?
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