Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett Signs 2 More Death Warrants
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has signed death warrants for two more inmates on death row, although the state last executed someone in 1999.
Corbett has now signed warrants for 10 of the approximately 208 people on death row since taking office this year.
Sixty-year-old Kenneth Hairston of Allegheny County is scheduled for lethal injection for killing his wife and autistic son in 2001.
Fifty-year-old Ralph Birdsong is set for execution for killing two Philadelphians in 1988. Both executions are set for January.
Pennsylvania has executed three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.
Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald Castille has complained that public defenders are thwarting the legal process through repeated delays.
Death-penalty opponents point to the scores of death-row inmates exonerated across the country.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
