Pa. governor says death penalty flawed and imposes moratorium

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Newly elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is imposing a moratorium on the death penalty. He calls the state’s current system of capital punishment “error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible.”

The Democrat had announced during his fall campaign he intended to issue such an order.

Wolf said today the moratorium will remain in effect at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that’s been studying the topic for about four years.

Pennsylvania currently has 183 men and three women on death row.

The state has only executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the last one in 1999.

All three had voluntarily given up their appeals.