A team of defense attorneys on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to restrict Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh from pursuing the death penalty — accusing him of using capital punishment to coerce plea agreements and cooperation from defendants, and to earn political capital among supporters.

The petition for extraordinary relief was filed with Pennsylvania’s highest appellate court by the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation on behalf of two men facing possible death in Washington County. The center is a nonprofit that provides assistance to defendants and their attorneys in death penalty cases.

“D.A. Walsh has abused his power,” Marc Bookman, the center’s executive director, said in a statement. “He is using the death penalty as a political tool and a cruel threat to coerce people into giving up their constitutional rights under a wrongful threat of death.

”The Pennsylvania Supreme Court must intervene to stop his abuse of the law and his office.”

According to the petition, since taking office in August 2021, Walsh has sought the death penalty in 11 out of 18 homicide cases filed in Washington County.

The filing asks that the Washington County DA’s office be precluded from seeking the death penalty in all cases without the prior approval of an out-of-county judge and that all capital cases filed since 2021 be reviewed by an out-of-county judge.

“The Washington County courts have failed to hold the commonwealth to its burden at the preliminary hearing stage and have failed to regulate the improper use of the death penalty by the Washington County District Attorney,” the petitioners claim.

The petition alleges that Walsh’s practice of seeking the death penalty in Washington County has become a “crisis.”

To pursue capital punishment, the prosecution must prove at least one aggravating circumstance under the law. Such circumstances could include situations in which the victim was a police officer working in an official capacity, a prosecution witness in another case, held for ransom or killed by torture.

“DA Walsh’s abuse of charging and of providing notice of aggravating circumstances demonstrates his intent to use the death penalty not to punish first-degree murder, but either to achieve guilty pleas, to coerce cooperation against codefendants, to accrue political capital or to simply inflict cruelty,” the petition said. “Because it does not serve a legitimate penological function, the practice constitutes a ‘gratuitous infliction of suffering’ and is therefore a violation of petitioners’ rights under the Eighth Amendment.”

Walsh defended himself Tuesday, saying he stands by his decisions in the cases outlined in the petition.

“These are negotiated plea agreements. When you seek the death penalty it doesn’t mean that’s ultimately what’s going to occur,” Walsh said. “If they don’t like the death penalty, they should talk to the people who make the laws. I don’t make the laws. I just enforce them.”

The district attorney, a Republican, called the Atlantic Center “nothing but a liberal think tank that’s anti-death penalty.”

Walsh said he had not yet seen the petition but knew it was going to be filed.

Despite Washington County having only 1.6% of the state’s population, Walsh has 26% of its capital prosecutions, the petition said.

The petition alleges that Walsh’s perspective on what qualifies for first-degree murder is “deeply inconsistent with the fundamental laws of Pennsylvania,” and that it reverses the “commonly understood tenet that the death penalty is reserved for the ‘worst of the worst.’”

Shaken-baby cases

The petition is filed on behalf of two people currently facing capital punishment in Washington County, as well as others similarly situated.

In both instances, the defendants are accused of killing their children in alleged shaken-baby cases.

Jordan Clarke is charged with criminal homicide for the death of his 2-month-old son, Sawyer, on May 23, 2022.

Walsh filed a notice of his intent to seek the death penalty against Clarke on Aug. 30, 2022, citing as an aggravating factor that the offense was committed by means of torture.

Although investigators allege the child was shaken, Clarke claims that he tripped while holding Sawyer, fell and landed on top of the child, the petition said.

Whatever the circumstances, it continued, there has been no evidence of “torture” that would warrant that aggravating factor.

“The commonwealth presented no evidence indicating the infliction of pain and suffering separate and apart from the action which resulted in the child’s death, nor any demonstrating a specific intent to torture,” the petition said. “Alleging this aggravator absent any verifiable facts is one more example of the district attorney’s pattern of unfettered abuse of discretion in seeking the death penalty.”

The Clarke case also involves allegations that Walsh, a Common Pleas judge and the county coroner improperly prohibited the baby’s body from being released to the family for proper burial.

A lawsuit is pending on that claim.

In the second case, Joshua George is charged with shaking his 6-month-old son, Oliver, on Dec. 30, 2021.

The baby died four days later.

Among the aggravating circumstances, the prosecution alleged that Oliver was killed during the commission of another felony.

However, the only other felonies, the petition said, involve the alleged assault of the child, which underlies the homicide and cannot be used in that way.

The petition further alleges that the DA’s office withheld exculpatory information from Oliver’s defense attorneys.

In responding to the concerns raised by the Atlantic Center about those cases, Walsh said, “We are talking about babies that were brutally killed.”

‘Cold comfort’

Although the petition is filed on behalf of Clarke and George, it also includes a number of now-concluded cases in which it claims Walsh abused his position.

Among the examples, the petition cites Jah Sutton, who spent almost four years in jail before a judge dismissed the charges against her.

Sutton was initially charged with conspiracy and possessing instruments of crime stemming from the Feb. 24, 2021, death of Nicholas Tarpley at Anna Lee’s Convenience Store in Donora.

Police said that Sidney McLean and Devell Christian killed Tarpley that day, but they also charged Sutton, who was dating McLean, as well. Her DNA was recovered on one of the bullet casings in the case.

According to testimony at her preliminary hearing, Sutton was not present at the scene.

Although Sutton was not charged with criminal homicide, Walsh filed notice of his intention to seek the death penalty against her.

Walsh said there were “mountains of evidence against her. He said he expects the case will be appealed.

When defense attorneys made it clear that charges of conspiracy and possessing instruments of crime were not death-penalty eligible, a month later, Walsh amended Sutton’s case, charging her with homicide.

Sutton remained in jail for almost four years until earlier this month, when Washington County Common Pleas Judge Traci McDonald dismissed all of the charges against her, the petition said.

“Four long and fearful years after the commonwealth improperly (and absurdly) sought the death penalty based on virtually no evidence, the Washington County courts finally held the commonwealth to its burden,” the court filing said. “This was cold comfort for Ms. Sutton.”

In another case cited in the petition, James May IV and Shannon McKnight were charged with criminal homicide after their 3-month-old daughter died from fentanyl toxicity in August 2022.

At the preliminary hearing, the petition said, there was no evidence presented to show how the child ingested the fentanyl or that any deliberate action was taken by the parents to show a specific intent to kill.

Still, Walsh filed notice he would seek a death sentence.

After two-and-a-half years in jail, both May and McKnight pleaded guilty to drug delivery resulting in death. They were sentenced to serve 10 to 20 years in prison.

In addition to precluding Walsh from seeking capital punishment without oversight of an out-of-county judge, the petition asks that the district attorney be barred from seeking death in the petitioners’ cases; that a master be appointed to supervise Walsh — specifically with the authority to review decisions to seek capital punishment; and that the DA’s office be required to consult with the state attorney general’s capital unit regarding any decision to seek death.

Bruce Antkowiak, a law professor at Saint Vincent College, said the allegations in the petition are enough to raise questions, but may not be enough for the state Supreme Court to take action.

“It’s going to come down to proof of why he’s doing that — you really have to focus on an invidious reason.”

Under Pennsylvania law, he said, the aggravating factors for potential capital punishment can apply in almost any first-degree murder case, although that doesn’t mean they ought to.

Antkowiak noted that a death penalty case can cost the criminal justice system millions more than a homicide case without the potential for capital punishment.

Still, he said, a prosecutor has broad discretion in choosing to pursue potential capital punishment.

“Maybe this guy really loves the death penalty, and the people of Washington County elected him because they want the death penalty,” Antkowiak said. “If that’s what they wanted, he’s delivering on his promise.”

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---