Supreme Court denies ‘King’s Bench’ petition by anti-death penalty group
Philadelphia organization asked court to limit DA’s pursuit of capital punishment
The state Supreme Court has denied the “King’s Bench” petition filed by a Philadelphia group advocating against the death penalty that asked the high court to essentially limit Washington County’s district attorney ability to pursue capital punishment in homicide cases.
In its two-page order Friday, the court rejected the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation’s request to use its “extraordinary jurisdiction” to review District Attorney Jason Walsh’s pursuit of the death penalty since 2021 and to restrict him from doing so with future cases.
The organization filed the petition directly to the state Supreme Court in July 2025 on behalf of Jordan Clarke and Joshua George, both of whom were accused of killing their young infant sons and facing the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. George was acquitted and released from jail following a jury trial last October, while Clarke remains jailed while awaiting trial for the death of his son in May 2022.
“I have maintained from the start, that this was a meritless, nonsensical, futile filing that was promulgated by politically-motivated Philadelphia activists,” Walsh said in a written statement Friday. “The Supreme Court saw through this charade and made the appropriate decision based on the law.”
Walsh has announced he would pursue the death penalty against nearly a dozen defendants in the five years since he was elevated to the top prosecutor’s role in August 2021 following the death of District Attorney Gene Vittone. Walsh, who had previously served as Vittone’s first assistant district attorney, ramped up the threat of pursuing the death penalty, announcing capital murder cases against 10 defendants over the next two years in the lead-up to the 2023 general election.
At its peak in 2024, Washington County had 12 pending death penalty cases, which was a little more than one-quarter of all capital cases in Pennsylvania despite the county having less than 2% of the state’s population. Since that time, three of those defendants have taken pleas to lesser charges, while George was acquitted and the case was dismissed against Jah Sutton, who was accused of being an accessory to a fatal shooting in Donora in February 2021. The death penalty was taken off the table for Devell Christian, one of the co-defendants in that shooting, while the other co-defendant, Sidney McLean, still faces capital punishment if convicted of first-degree murder.
The Supreme Court ruled that the cases and pursuit of the death penalty should be reviewed on an individual basis by post-conviction courts.
“This is a systemic and ongoing problem that is harming people,” said Frances Harvey, who is executive director for the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation. “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. … Jason Walsh is the kind of problematic prosecutor who exemplifies why capital punishment is broken and irredeemable in Pennsylvania.”
The Atlantic Center accused Walsh of abusing his prosecutorial powers to pursue the death penalty for political purposes while running for election in 2023.
The petition asked the Supreme Court to preclude Walsh from seeking the death penalty against Clarke and George, and in all other cases moving forward without approval by an out-of-county judge. The petition also requested a master be appointed to supervise Walsh’s office, specifically with the authority to review each decision to seek the death penalty, and be required to consult with the state Attorney General’s office regarding any decision to pursue capital homicide cases. The center also wanted an out-of-county judge to be assigned to review every case in which a defendant has been charged with capital murder in Washington County since 2021.
“We are deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court’s unwillingness to take on this obvious problem,” Harvey said in a written statement Friday. “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. 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.”
With the “King’s Bench” request now denied, attention in Clarke’s case turns to the requests by his criminal defense attorneys asking Washington County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Lucas to dismiss the case, take the death penalty off the table or remove Walsh from prosecuting it, among other issues.
Clarke, 40, is accused of assaulting his 11-week-old son, Sawyer, who died May 24, 2022, a day after an incident at the father’s Peters Township home. Attorneys for Clarke, who was charged with homicide and other felony counts two weeks after his son’s death, has claimed he slipped on a plastic bag and fell while holding the boy, causing the injuries.
Clarke later filed a lawsuit against Walsh and other county officials over the decision to hold Sawyer’s body for several months rather than returning the remains to the family, although that lawsuit was dismissed by a visiting senior judge.
The last hearing in the homicide case was held in July and it was not known when Lucas would rule on the motions. Clarke has been held at the Washington County jail without bond since his arrest in June 2022.