PRINTER'S NO. 2349
No. 1819 Session of 1985
INTRODUCED BY BARBER, COHEN, JOHNSON, FOX, PISTELLA, REBER,
VROON, TRELLO, WOZNIAK, PRESTON AND TIGUE, OCTOBER 22, 1985
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, OCTOBER 22, 1985
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 19, 1913 (P.L.528, No.338), entitled
2 "An act fixing the penalty for murder of the first degree;
3 regulating the procedure incident to the infliction thereof;
4 prescribing and providing for a place and manner of
5 inflicting said penalty on the grounds of the new Western
6 Penitentiary of this Commonwealth, in Centre County; making
7 an appropriation therefor; repealing inconsistent
8 legislation; and providing that neither this act nor said
9 repeal shall apply to any case in which it shall appear that
10 said crime was committed prior to the date of the approval of
11 this act," further providing for the manner of carrying out a
12 sentence of death.
13 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
14 hereby enacts as follows:
15 Section 1. Sections 1, 3, 4 and 6 of the act of June 19,
16 1913 (P.L.528, No.338), entitled "An act fixing the penalty for
17 murder of the first degree; regulating the procedure incident to
18 the infliction thereof; prescribing and providing for a place
19 and manner of inflicting said penalty on the grounds of the new
20 Western Penitentiary of this Commonwealth, in Centre County;
21 making an appropriation therefor; repealing inconsistent
22 legislation; and providing that neither this act nor said repeal
1 shall apply to any case in which it shall appear that said crime
2 was committed prior to the date of the approval of this act,"
3 are amended to read:
4 Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That every person, his
5 aiders, abettors and counsellors, hereafter convicted of the
6 crime of murder of the first degree, shall be sentenced to
7 suffer death in the manner herein provided, and not otherwise.
8 Such punishment, in every case, must be inflicted by causing to
9 pass through the body of the convict a current of electricity of
10 intensity sufficient to cause death, and the application of such
11 current must be continued until such convict is dead[. The said
12 punishment shall be inflicted by the warden or deputy warden of
13 the Western Penitentiary, or by such person as the warden shall
14 designate, and shall be inflicted in a building to be erected on
15 the land owned by the Commonwealth in Centre County, whereon the
16 buildings of the new Western Penitentiary are to be built.], or
17 by continuous intravenous injection of an ultra-short-acting
18 barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent in a
19 lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until such person
20 is dead at the option of the convict. The Secretary of
21 Corrections shall determine the substance or substances to be
22 used and the procedures to be used in any execution by lethal
23 injection.
24 Section 3. After the receipt of the said record the Governor
25 of the Commonwealth shall issue his warrant, directed to the
26 [warden of the Western Penitentiary] Secretary of Corrections
27 commanding said [warden] secretary to cause such convict to be
28 executed [in said penitentiary,] within the week to be named in
29 said warrant, and in the manner prescribed by law.
30 Section 4. [Upon the receipt of such warrant the said warden
19850H1819B2349 - 2 -
1 shall, by a written notice under his hand and seal, duly notify
2 the officer having the custody of such convict to deliver such
3 convict to the custody of such warden, and it shall be the duty
4 of such officer to forthwith cause such delivery to be made.
5 Thereupon, and until] Until the penalty of death shall be
6 inflicted, or until lawfully discharged from such custody, said
7 convict shall be kept in solitary confinement in said
8 penitentiary. During such confinement no person except the
9 officers of such penitentiary, the counsel of such convict, and
10 a spiritual adviser selected by such convict, or the members of
11 the immediate family of such convict, shall be allowed access to
12 such convict without an order of said court or a judge thereof.
13 Section 6. After any such execution the [warden of the
14 Western Penitentiary] Secretary of Corrections shall certify in
15 writing, under oath or affirmation, to the court [of oyer and
16 terminer] of the county wherein such convict has been sentenced
17 to death, that such convict was duly executed at the place and
18 in the manner prescribed in this act, and at the time designated
19 in the death warrant of the Governor. Such certificate shall be
20 filed in the office of the clerk of such court.
21 Section 2. This act shall apply to all executions carried
22 out on or after the effective date hereof, irrespective of the
23 date sentence was imposed.
24 Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
I25L61DGS/19850H1819B2349 - 3 -