Death penalty trends show divide between public, officials

While legal in Pennsylvania, capital punishment has been temporarily prohibited for a decade.

By MEGAN TROTTER
TribLive

When Burgettstown resident Joshua George was charged with the 2022 death of his 6-month-old son, the Washington County District Attorney’s office sought the death penalty.

George, 40, was acquitted in October. His case now serves as a cautionary tale.

At a news conference online on Tuesday, anti-death penalty advocates and legal experts presented 2025 data that indicated a disconnect between national execution trends and public opinion. The Washington County case was held up as an example of this trend.

Data collected by the Death Penalty Information Center, a national nonprofit organization that provides analysis on capital punishment issues, revealed that 48 executions occurred in 2025 — the highest total in more than 15 years.

However, this year, when capital juries were asked to choose between life and death, 56% rejected the death penalty. Only 14 juries nationwide unanimously agreed to impose death sentences in more than 50 cases.

The Death Penalty Information Center found that a number of the people executed in 2025 were sentenced over 20 years ago and could not have received the death sentence had they been tried to today.

The study said that 83% of those executed in 2025 had at least one of the following vulnerabilities: serious mental illness; low IQ, brain damage, or evidence of intellectual disability; and/or significant childhood trauma, neglect, or abuse. At least 40 of the prisoners executed this year had at least one of the factors.

The “contradictory trends indicate the growing disconnect between what elected officials do and what the public wants,” the nonprofit’s findings said.

According to the data, evidence points that the death penalty in 2025 is growing increasingly unpopular among the people, even as elected officials continue to schedule executions.

Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, pointed to Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh as an example of this phenomenon.

In July, the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, which provides legal support, resources to defense attorneys on capital punishment cases, filed a petition for extraordinary relief with Pennsylvania’s highest appellate court on behalf of two men facing possible death in Washington County, one of which was George.

Walsh, since taking the position in 2021, has sought the death penalty in 11 out of 18 homicide cases in the county. He has been facing accusations of using capital punishment to coerce plea agreements and cooperation from defendants for political gain, according to the petition.

Speaking on behalf of death row inmates was Sabrina Butler- Smith, who spent two years on Mississippi’s death row for the death of her infant son — a crime she did not commit. In 1995, she became the first woman in the United States to be exonerated from death row.

“I think what the public truly needs to understand is that when you are faced with the death sentence and convicted and accused of killing a family member or a person … you know what your death date is, and sitting there waiting to die is one of the worst things,” Butler-Smith said.

While legal in Pennsylvania, capital punishment has been temporarily prohibited for a decade. Former Gov. Tom Wolf declared a moratorium in 2015, which was then followed by Gov. Josh Shapiro.

On Dec. 5, the state announced that Department of Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry signed a notice of execution for Richard Roland Laird, who’s been on death row for over three decades. Laird was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1987 death of a 26-year-old artist in Bucks County.

The notice states that Laird will be put to death on Jan. 2, 2026. The governor’s moratorium, however, means that Laird cannot be executed, even though the notice had been signed.

Including Laird, there are currently 95 people on Pennsylvania’s death row — all of whom will continue to remain in jail until the state’s moratorium is lifted.

Jordan Clarke, 39, was charged with criminal homicide for the death of his 2-month-old son in 2022. He faces the possibility of being placed on death row as he awaits trial in Washington County.

“What’s going on in Washington County reflects a national problem. Sabrina (Butler-Smith) is one of nine people who have been exonerated from death rows nationwide for being wrongfully convicted and wrongfully condemned for the death of a child,” Dunham said on Tuesday.

The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation’s petition also requested that the state Supreme Court restrict Walsh from pursuing the death penalty.

The Washington County District Attorney’s office has not responded to a request for comment.

In August, Walsh denied the allegations made against him to reporters.

“The discretion to charge or not — and what to charge — has been historically recognized as an area of sovereignty for district attorneys,” said Walsh’s attorneys in a 100-page response urging the court to deny the petition in August.

In 2025, Congress and lawmakers across 36 states introduced at least 150 death penalty-related bills and only 17 were enacted across eight states, according to the nonprofit.