Washington: The execution of Indian prisoner, convicted of killing a baby and her Indian grandmother, has been set for February 23. In 2014, Raghunandan Yandamuri, 32, was given the death penalty for kidnapping and killing a 61-year-old Indian woman and her 10-month-old grand-daughter. However, he may get a reprieve because of a 2015 moratorium on the death penalty by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.
“The law provides that when the governor does not sign a warrant of execution within the specified time period, the secretary of corrections has 30 days within which to issue a notice of execution,” Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said. According to the report, Wolf imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015. State officials are awaiting the results of a study conducted by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on capital punishment, before moving forward with any executions.
Pennsylvania has not seen any executions in the last nearly 20 years. Since 1976, three persons have been executed in the States between 1995 and 1999. A native of Andhra Pradesh, Yandamuri had come to the US on H-1B visa. He holds an advanced degree in electrical and computer science engineering. Following his conviction, he asked that death penalty be imposed upon him. Later, he appealed against his sentence, but lost in April last year.
