The death penalty, and its implementation, have been in the spotlight since Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf issued a moratorium earlier in the year. Though executions have been halted, Pennsylvania's large death row population has kept the Pennsylvania Supreme Court busy, with the court averaging nearly two dozen substantive decisions a year in direct appeals and post-convinction appels related to death sentences. Over the course of those cases, Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor has established a voice separate and distinct from others, focusing frequently on effective representation. Litigation Department vice chair Bruce Merenstein explores Chief Justice Saylor's approach in "Saylor Offers a Lonely Voice in Death-Penalty Appeals," published in The Legal Intelligencer on September 15, 2015.
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