Pennsylvania Governor Issues Reprieve for Richard Laird, Continuing State’s Execution Moratorium

On December 5, 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued an exe­cu­tion reprieve for Richard Roland Laird, the same day the Department of Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry signed a Notice of Execution for January 2, 2026. In issu­ing the same-day reprieve, Gov. Shapiro act­ed on his promise to main­tain an exe­cu­tion mora­to­ri­um in Pennsylvania. In February 2023, Gov. Shapiro announced he would con­tin­ue his pre­de­ces­sor Tom Wolf’s halt on exe­cu­tions, and called upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly to repeal the death penal­ty. He stat­ed: ​“When an exe­cu­tion war­rant comes to my desk, I will sign a reprieve each and every time.”

“The Commonwealth shouldn’t be in the busi­ness of putting peo­ple to death. Period. I believe that in my heart. This is a fun­da­men­tal state­ment of moral­i­ty. Of what’s right and wrong. And I believe Pennsylvania must be on the right side of this issue.” — Governor Josh Shapiro on the death penal­ty in Pennsylvania.

After an indi­vid­ual is sen­tenced to death in Pennsylvania, the gov­er­nor is pre­sent­ed with a war­rant to set the date of exe­cu­tion, and if the gov­er­nor does not sign it and a date is not set, the Secretary of Corrections must issue a notice of exe­cu­tion. Since 1985, just three of the 482 war­rants or notices issued in Pennsylvania have been car­ried out, accord­ing to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PDOC). Since 1973, there have been 13 exon­er­a­tions from Pennsylvania’s death row.

When issu­ing a reprieve for Mr. Laird, Gov. Shapiro out­lined that in his pre­vi­ous role as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, he ​“had the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem first­hand” and his ​“expe­ri­ence revealed two unde­ni­able truths about” the death penal­ty: ​“that it is inher­ent­ly fal­li­ble and its con­se­quences are irre­versible.” Gov. Shapiro stat­ed that while he remains ​“com­mit­ted to secur­ing jus­tice for vic­tims and their fam­i­lies” and that those sen­tenced to death have com­mit­ted the ​“most ter­ri­ble crimes,” ​“the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania should not be in the busi­ness of exe­cut­ing peo­ple.” He also not­ed that he has ​“called upon the General Assembly to pass leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the death penal­ty, as near­ly half the states in our nation — includ­ing sev­er­al of [Pennsylvania’s] neigh­bor­ing states — have already done.”

Pennsylvania leg­is­la­tors have intro­duced bills in recent ses­sions to abol­ish the death penal­ty. In 2023, leg­is­la­tion made it out of the House Judiciary Committee but was nev­er moved for a vote. House Bill 888, intro­duced in the 2025 – 2026 Regular Session, and spon­sored by Representative Russ Diamond (R) would elim­i­nate the death penal­ty as a sen­tenc­ing option, leav­ing the most severe pun­ish­ment as life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. This bill has seen notable bipar­ti­san sup­port and is among 12 abo­li­tion bills intro­duced across 12 states with the death penal­ty in 2025.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Hayley Bedard, January 5, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde