After several months of anticipation, a Pennsylvania House committee on Tuesday cleared two bills regarding the commonwealth’s death penalty – one that would tighten the standard for its use and another that would eliminate it entirely (article available here).
The movement of the bills by the House Judiciary Committee has been expected since Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he would continue his predecessor’s moratorium on capital punishment in Pennsylvania, and also endorsed a wholesale repeal of the death penalty.
Both Republicans and Democrats unanimously supported a bill that would heighten the standard of evidence used in the penalty phase of a capital case, when juries decide if the death penalty should be applied to the convicted person.
Current law states the death penalty shall be handed down if the jury finds the aggravating factors in the case outweigh the mitigating ones “by the preponderance of the evidence.” The bill, which passed through the judiciary committee Tuesday, would change this to “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Pennsylvania currently has 98 inmates on death row, according to data from the state Department of Corrections, some with sentences dating back to the 1980s – but their executions have either been stayed by the courts or reprieved by the governor.
Both bills will now move to a vote by the full House and would need to clear the Senate before heading to the governor’s desk. Both chambers are scheduled to re-convene Nov. 13.