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October 10, 2008 4:13:37 PM CDT

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Pennsylvania Sticking With Death Penalty

Posted Jan 2, 08 4:44 AM CST in US 

(Newser) – There have been only three executions in Pennsylvania since 1978, but four year-end rulings from the state's Supreme Court indicate the state won't be going the way of neighboring New Jersey, which abolished the death penalty,  any time soon, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The state's deputy attorney general stresses that prosecutors are working hard to get executions carried out, but the courts are clogged with appeals.

The court upheld four death sentences in five days and ordered new hearings for two more of the state's 228 inmates on death row, the fourth-largest in the nation. Among those waiting for rulings this year is Mumia Abu-Jamal, sentenced to death in 1981 for shooting a police officer. The former Black Panther's case has attracted attention from around the world.

Source Philadelphia Inquirer

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Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck makes remarks during a rally in Philadelphia, Friday, April 13, 2007. Twenty people who have been exonerated after spending a combined 150 years on death row...   (Associated Press)
Harold Wilson, of Philadelphia, left, makes remarks during a rally against the death penalty on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Friday, April 13, 2007. Wilson was acquitted of a triple murder after...   (Associated Press)
Supporters of Mumia Abu-Jamal protest outside the NBC "Today" television program in New York, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007. Maureen Faulkner, widow of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner killed by former...   (Associated Press)
Protesters in support of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal march outside the United States Courthouse in Philadelphia, Thursday, May 17, 2007. Abu-Jamal, who has been on death row since 1981, is among...   (Associated Press)
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