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Delaware County DA Seeking Death Penalty Despite Pennsylvania's Moratorium

By Ian Bush

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This past week, Delaware County's District Attorney vowed to seek the death penalty against a former police officer charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend. This, despite the moratorium on capital punishment in Pennsylvania, ordered by Governor Wolf.

It's the subject of a battle in the state's highest court.

"In certain cases, justice demands the consideration of death."

Such as the case against former Colwyn cop Stephen Rozniakowski, says Delaware County DA Jack Whelan.

He argues there are four aggravating factors that warrant the defendant's execution, including that the victim had taken out a protection from abuse order against the man just hours before she was killed.

"And although we highly respect the office of the governor and we highly respect the opinion of the sitting Governor Wolf, what he's done is unconstitutional." says Whelan.

Wolf's lawyers say otherwise: that the state constitution gives him "unconditional power" to grant reprieves to death-row inmates. The governor says he won't stop doing so until a panel of lawmakers finishes a study on capital punishment in the commonwealth.

His stance is being challenged in separate cases in the state Supreme Court by Philadelphia DA Seth Williams and Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

182 people sit on death row in Pennsylvania. Three have been executed in the nearly four decades since the penalty was made legal; each had given up their appeals.

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