Pa. Supreme Court denies request to intervene in questioned capital punishment cases

Pennsylvania’s highest court on Friday declined to intervene in the cases of two men charged with capital murder after defenders raised alarms about the district attorney’s prolific pursuit of the death penalty in Washington County.

The Atlantic Center for Capital Representation filed a petition in July 2025 asking the state Supreme Court to restrict Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh’s use of the death penalty. The court’s two-page order didn’t explain the decision.

It alleges Walsh had pursued the death penalty without evidence supporting capital punishment and outlined a pattern in which Walsh’s office has allegedly held other defendants for trial with the intent to seek the death penalty without establishing facts to support it.

One of the men, Joshua George, was found not guilty of killing his 6-month-old son by a Washington County jury last October.

Frances Harvey, executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, said the group is deeply disappointed by the court’s decision not to address what she described as an “obvious problem.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that Jason Walsh has overreached in the most serious decision-making any district attorney has, which is to seek another person’s execution,” Harvey said. “What’s happening in Washington County is a disgrace to our justice system, and we will continue to call out this sort of misconduct when we see it.”    

Walsh did not respond to a voicemail left at his office.

The petition asked the court to exercise its power to intervene in any case to order the Washington County District Attorney’s Office to be precluded from seeking death sentences without the approval of a judge from another county. 

It requested the court to bar the office from seeking the death penalty against George and Jordan Clarke. The men were charged separately in the deaths of their infant children. Clarke remains held without bail awaiting trial.

The Atlantic Center’s petition asked the Supreme Court to appoint a special master to supervise the district attorney’s office and require the district attorney to consult with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s capital unit regarding decisions to seek death.

It also asked that a judge from another county be assigned to review every capital case in Washington County since 2021. Walsh filed notices of his intent to pursue sentences of death in 11 out of 18 homicide cases his office has prosecuted since he took office in 2021, according to the petition.

“This is a systemic and ongoing problem that is harming people,” Harvey said. “The acquittal of Joshua George last year and the dismissal of charges against Jah Sutton are perfect examples of how people have lost years of their lives in county jail because of Jason Walsh’s reckless pursuit of the death penalty. That kind of misconduct deserves a systems-level response, not mere individual reviews.”

Sutton was one of three people charged with capital murder in the killing of a Donora convenience store clerk in 2021. A state appellate court in August upheld a Washington County judge’s decision dismissing the charges against Sutton after finding there was no prima facie evidence linking her to the shooting.

“Jason Walsh is the kind of problematic prosecutor who exemplifies why capital punishment is broken and irredeemable in Pennsylvania,” Harvey said.

Under Pennsylvania law, the death penalty may be applied only when the killing at issue was intentional and there is at least one aggravating factor.

Aggravating factors can include when the victim is a police officer or other first responder, murder for hire, torture, killing in the commission of another felony and more than a dozen other circumstances. 

In the case of Clarke, the petition alleges, Walsh filed homicide charges and notice of aggravating factors to pursue the death penalty before the manner of his two-month-old son’s death had been determined. It also claims Walsh attempted to improperly influence the death investigation.

In an affidavit in support of the petition, Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco accused Walsh of fraudulently obtaining a court order directing Warco’s office to take jurisdiction over the death of Clarke’s son after an autopsy was performed in Allegheny County.

When two-month-old Sawyer Clarke died in 2022, Walsh was actively campaigning for his first election as district attorney, having been appointed to his post a year earlier. His primary platform was harsh punishment for people who kill infants and children, Warco’s affidavit said. 

Although Sawyer died at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, an assistant district attorney told Warco that Walsh wanted the Washington County Coroner’s Office to perform the autopsy, according to the filing.

According to Warco’s affidavit, Walsh obtained a court order from President Judge John DiSalle listing the child’s place of death as Peters Township, Washington County, in order to give Warco’s office jurisdiction over the death. 

The Atlantic Center contends the district attorney’s pursuit of a death sentence is not supported by the evidence produced at a preliminary hearing.