Governor Josh Shapiro says he will not utilize capital punishment while in office. He's also asking the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty.
In a news conference Thursday, Shapiro called the death penalty morally wrong, adding Pennsylvania should not be "in the business of putting people to death."
Shapiro admitted his viewpoint on capital punishment has evolved over time.
"For more than a decade, including when I assumed office as Attorney General, I believed that the death penalty should be reserved for the most heinous crimes – but that it was, indeed, a just punishment for those crimes," he said. "However, when the first capital cases came to my desk in the AG’s office, I found myself repeatedly unwilling to seek the death penalty."
While in office, Governor Tom Wolf placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015. At the time, he called it a system of "endless cycle of court proceedings as well as ineffective, unjust, and expensive."
Three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since 1976. The last person executed was Gary Heidnik in 1999. He was convicted for murdering two women who had imprisoned in his home.
Shapiro cited the Tree of Life Synagogue during Thursday's briefing.
Members of the congregation have asked the prosecution to spare the accused killer the death penalty.
"I listened to the families of the 11 people slain at Tree of Life and was blown away by their courage and their fortitude," Shapiro said. They told me, that even after all the pain and anguish, they did not want the killer put to death. He should spend the rest of his life in prison they said, but the state should not take his life as punishment for him taking the lives of their loved ones. That moved me."
There are currently 101 people on death row in Pennsylvania.
Over two dozens states and territories have abolished the death penalty.