Capital reversals in the Keystone state

Thanks to How Appealing, I saw this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled, “Death-row reversals of fortune; In 7 years, 50 Pa. inmates awaiting execution were spared by the courts.”  Here are some highlights:

In just the last seven years in Pennsylvania, an estimated 50 inmates who were facing execution have gotten new leases on life behind bars, as federal and state judges overturn death sentences at a rate that is buoying opponents of capital punishment and infuriating prosecutors.

Departures from Pennsylvania’s death row — with 225 residents, the fourth largest behind California, Florida and Texas — have roughly equaled arrivals since 2000, and could soon eclipse them.  The appeals pipeline is clogged with condemned inmates fighting for life without parole, at the very least.  Also since 2000, about 75 of them have scored significant interim victories — new sentencing hearings or retrials — typically after courts found serious legal errors in the way their original cases were tried.