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Death row in a Texas prison: moratorium in several US states
Photo: Paul Buck/dpa
The death penalty has long been a hot topic, particularly among democratic politicians in the United States.
The governor of Pennsylvania is now drawing consequences for his state.
Josh Shapiro said he would not have any inmates executed during his tenure.
"Whenever an execution warrant lands on my desk, I will sign a pardon," the Democratic politician said in a statement.
He also called for the abolition of the death penalty in Pennsylvania.
Shapiro was elected governor of the state in November's midterm elections and took office in January.
In his own words, the 49-year-old was not always an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
"To be honest, my attitude towards the death penalty has changed over time," he says.
For more than a decade, even during his time as Attorney General, he believed that the death penalty could be a just punishment for the most serious crimes.
However, when the first capital crimes landed in his office, he had a hard time asking for the death penalty.
"When my son asked me why it was okay to kill someone as punishment for murder, I couldn't look him in the eye and explain why."
His predecessor, the Democrat Tom Wolf, also opposes the death penalty and imposed a moratorium during his term in office.
California Governor Gavin Newsom acted similarly several years ago.
In March 2019 he suspended the death penalty by decree, he considers executions to be immoral and most recently wanted to abolish death row in a prison.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 1,560 people have been executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 – three in Pennsylvania.
However, no one has been executed there since 1999.
Across the country, however, six convicts have been executed since the beginning of the year alone.
23 of the 50 US states have abolished the death penalty altogether.
Three US states in particular have been carrying out a particularly high number of death sentences since the reintroduction of the death penalty: Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Since then, according to Amnesty International, they alone have been responsible for around half of all executions in the United States.
Man dies after 30 years on death row - naturally
But even in Texas, things sometimes take care of themselves. In the state, a man who has been on death row for nearly 30 years has died of natural causes.
Henry "Hank" Skinner died Thursday in a Galveston hospital, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
In a statement, Skinner's attorneys said their client died of complications following surgery in December to remove a brain tumor.
The execution of the 60-year-old was scheduled for September 13.
Skinner was convicted of the 1993 murders of his girlfriend and her two sons.
According to prosecutors, he had killed his girlfriend with an ax handle and then fatally stabbed her sons, both of whom were mentally handicapped.
Skinner had maintained his innocence until his death, an execution date having been scrapped at the last minute in 2010.
In October last year, however, a Texas appeals court upheld the original verdict.
Apr/dpa/AP