A fractured Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the PCRA court’s denial of post-conviction relief in a death penalty case where the defendant pleaded guilty to killing a Bucks County police officer. Though the defendant raised myriad claims in his petition seeking post-conviction relief, his primary claim was that his intellectual disability rendered him ineligible for the death penalty under Atkins v. Virginia. Though it took four opinions — with none garnering a four-judge majority — the Supreme Court rejected that claim. But given Pennsylvania’s moratorium on the death penalty, there is no foreseeable possibility of the defendant’s execution.
