Letter to the editor: Zappala’s seeking death penalty is out of step with Pa. Democrats

Allegheny County District Attorney Steven Zappala’s announcement that his office will seek the death penalty against Jonathan Morris (“DA to seek death penalty against man charged in Pittsburgh triple homicide,” March 26, TribLIVE) says all that local Democrats should need to know about his unfitness to represent the party in the upcoming elections.

Given the Democratic governor’s announcement a month earlier that he is extending the moratorium on signing executions, what does this say about Zappala’s hope for Pennsylvania gubernatorial elections in 2026 and beyond? Is he counting on the election of a bloodthirsty Republican? Or perhaps an old-style Pennsylvania Democrat propelled by mob ties like Zappala himself, whose language and policies are more in line with 20th-century Dixiecrats than the sincere young Democrats doing their best to move Pennsylvania beyond the inertia of its past. This past is littered with wrongful convictions often with clear racial and class discrimination at play and with plea bargains garnered by using a possible death sentence as a scare tactic even when a death sentence was not actually a viable option.

Besides being morally reprehensible, cases involving pursuit of a death sentence are extremely expensive — one recent estimate is $3.1 million per prosecution. How can this be justified in a state where no one has been executed since 1999?

Perhaps Zappala will win the Republican endorsement as he did in 2019, but shame on Pittsburgh Democrats if they choose him as their candidate for a sixth time and empower him to serve a staggering seventh term. Enough is enough.

Alan Lewandowski

Lawrenceville