Atlantic Center for Capital Representation Applauds Pa. House Committee Vote to Repeal the Death Penalty

CONTACT: Andy Hoover, andy@hoovercomms.com, 717-256-1293

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives today passed bipartisan legislation to repeal the death penalty as a sentencing option for first degree murder, a vote that drew praise from the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, who said the time has come for abolition.

House Bill 99, introduced by Rep. Chris Rabb (D) of Philadelphia, and HB 888, sponsored by Rep. Russ Diamond (R) of Lebanon County, are identical bills that repeal capital punishment. The House Judiciary Committee passed both bills, sending them to the full chamber for consideration.

“The death penalty is fundamentally and irreparably flawed,” said Frances Harvey, interim executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that trains and assists capital defense attorneys. “We know that innocent people have been sentenced to death in Pennsylvania. We haven’t had an execution in which the person didn’t give up their appeals in more than 60 years. And we know that whether or not a person faces the death penalty has more to do with who they are, who the victim is, and where the crime occurred, making this punishment completely arbitrary. It’s time to end it.”

The Atlantic Center is the only known organization that tracks all pending capital cases in Pennsylvania. According to the group’s data, there are currently 35 capital cases in the commonwealth that are pre-trial.

“The death penalty is alive and not well in Pennsylvania,” Harvey said. “A handful of district attorneys vigorously pursue death at a time when other prosecutors are opting not to seek death sentences.”

In March, Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele withdrew the notice of aggravating circumstances in a case, telling the Observer-Reporter, “They’re expensive cases to prosecute. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources here with attorneys.”

Aubele’s decision was one of several throughout Pennsylvania in the last year in which district attorneys opted not to seek capital punishment after initially announcing they would. Others include cases in Lycoming County and Allegheny County. Philadelphia County hasn’t prosecuted a capital case since the election of District Attorney Larry Krasner in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Center filed a petition before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in July 2025, seeking greater oversight in death penalty cases in Washington County. The petition, filed on behalf of two pre-trial capital defendants, presented evidence that the DA repeatedly failed to meet the legal standard necessary for capital charges at even the pre-trial stage.

That petition is still pending before the court. One of the defendants, Joshua George, was acquitted at trial in October, in a case in which the jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes.

“More and more DAs are not seeking the death penalty. Then there’s a prosecutor like the one in Washington County, who is abusing his power and pursuing death sentences when he shouldn’t,” Harvey said. “This system has failed. It’s dysfunctional public policy.”

According to a September 2025 poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research, 58% of Pennsylvanians prefer alternative sentences over the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, while just 29% opt for the death sentence.

There has been just one new death sentence in Pennsylvania in the last three years, and there are currently 95 people on Pennsylvania’s death row, the lowest it’s been since the 1980s, after hitting a peak of more than 250 people in the early 2000s. In February 2023, Governor Josh Shapiro continued the moratorium on executions started by his predecessor, Tom Wolf, and urged the General Assembly to repeal capital punishment.

The last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999.

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