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PA death row defendant, tired of delays though asserting innocence, asks to be executed

By Douglas A. Berman

Pennsylvania's death row has over two hundred defendants, but the state has executed only three defendants in the modern era.  As detailed in this local story, one defendant is tired of waiting to leave death row via execution: An Altoona man on death row has sent a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell asking that his death warrant be signed, thereby carrying out a sentence imposed on him for the 1998 Thanksgiving Day murder of his former girlfriend's husband. William L. Wright III, now 45, was convicted a decade ago of killing James Mowery in his Beale Avenue home.... In 2007, Wright became upset when the state Supreme Court, after years of deliberation, had failed to decide his appeal.  He filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Johnstown claiming inordinate delay in sentencing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).