since 2000, 50 people have had their death sentences reversed in Pennsylvania...

since 2000, 50 people have had their death sentences reversed in Pennsylvania as courts found serious legal errors in the inmates' original trials. The number of reversals nearly equaled the number of people added to the state's death row during the past 7 years and have come from a variety of courts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued about 20% of the reversals, 50% of the death sentences were overturned by state trial judges during the next stage of review, and another 30% of the reversals came from federal courts. Executions have been rare in Pennsylvania, where 225 people are on death row. The state has carried out three executions since it reinstated capital punishment in 1978. In each of those cases, the prisoner waived his appeals and hence hastened the execution. During this same period, the state has freed 6 wrongly-convicted men from death row.