Raghunandan Yandamuri, the 1st Indian American on death row, was not put to
death by lethal injection on Feb. 23, his scheduled execution date, as the
state of Pennsylvania has a moratorium on the death penalty since 2015.
Pennsylvania District Court Judge Petrese Tucker issued a stay of execution for
Yandamuri Jan. 16, based on a request by the killer, who - during court
proceedings - told a judge he wanted to die for the crimes he had committed,
and asked that the death sentence be imposed upon him. He received two death
sentences, which he later appealed but lost last April.
Amy Worden, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections,
told India-West that another warrant would have to be signed for the execution
to proceed. "For now he remains on the capital case unit," she said.
The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons would have to determine if Yandamuri's death
sentence can be commuted to a life sentence, said Worden.
Sue McNaughton, communications director, Pennsylvania Department of
Corrections, told PTI in January that the likelihood of Yandamuri being
executed is slim. She noted that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has said he
would issue a reprieve if a court did not grant the stay.
Pennsylvania has not carried out any executions in the past 20 years. Yandamuri
is incarcerated at the Greene State Correctional Institution, a maximum
security prison in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
In 2014, Yandamuri was sentenced to die by lethal injection for murdering
10-month-old Saanvi Venna and her 61-year-old grandmother, Satyavathi Venna. A
jury deliberated for just 3 hours before declaring Yandamuri guilty (see
India-West story here:
http://bit.ly/2DhvWch).
After he was arrested in 2012, the killer provided a chilling account of how he
entered the Vennas' apartment while Saanvi's parents, Venkata and Latha, were
at work. He fatally stabbed Satyavathi - who was attempting to protect her
granddaughter - before kidnapping the baby, which he hoped to use to obtain
$50,000 in ransom from her parents.
Yandamuri and his wife Komali were friends with the Vennas and lived in the
same apartment building in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
After kidnapping Saanvi, Yandamuri covered her mouth and stuffed the baby in a
suitcase, then left her at a basement gym in the apartment building, where she
suffocated to death. During a frantic 3-day search by police and the local
community, Yandamuri handed out missing baby flyers.
The H-1B tech worker was arrested later that week at a local gambling casino.
Earlier India-West stories reported that Yandamuri had accrued $35,000 in
gambling debts and had filed for bankruptcy while working in Northern
California. His wife Komali was pregnant at the time of the murders. She has
returned to India.
Source: indiawest.com, February, 2018
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