List of people executed in Pennsylvania

The following is a list of people executed by the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

A total of 1,043 people have been executed in Pennsylvania since 1693,[1][2] the third highest of any other state or commonwealth in the Union, after New York (1,130) and Virginia (1,361).[3]

Until 1915, hanging was the common method of execution. 1915 saw the first use of the electric chair, even though it was approved by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1913. The delay was due to the time needed to finish the Western Penitentiary in Centre County, now the State Correctional Institution – Rockview. On November 29, 1990, Governor Casey changed the form of execution to lethal injection.[4]

Since 1976

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, 3 people, all convicted of murder, have been executed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All were executed by lethal injection, and in all cases, they waived their appeals and asked that the execution be carried out.[5]

# Name Race Age Sex Date of
Execution		 Method of
Execution		 Victim(s) Governor
1 Keith Zettlemoyer[6] White 39 M May 2, 1995 Lethal injection Charles DeVetsco Tom Ridge
2 Leon Moser[7] White 52 M August 15, 1995 Linda Moser, Donna Moser, and Joanne Moser
3 Gary M. Heidnik White 55 M July 6, 1999 Deborah Dudley and Sandra Lindsay

See also

References
  1. "Executions in Pennsylvania - 1693-1800". DeathPenaltyUSA.org.
  2. "Executions in Pennsylvania - 1921-1962". DeathPenaltyUSA.org.
  3. "US Executions from 1608-2002". DeathPenaltyUSA.org.
  4. "Pennsylvania Department of Corrections - History of the Death Penalty". www.cor.state.pa.us. Archived from the original on November 15, 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  5. "Searchable Execution Database". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  6. "Zettlemoyer Executed For 1980 Killing Of Pal He's The First To Be Put To Death In Pa. Since Elmo Smith Died In Chair In '62". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 3, 1995. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
  7. "Killer of His Ex-Wife and 2 Daughters Is Executed". The New York Times. August 17, 1995. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.