Washington: The date of execution for the US’ first Indian-American prisoner on death-row has been set for February 23. Convicted of killing a baby and her Indian grandmother, Raghunandan Yandamuri, 32, was given death penalty in 2014.
He was charged with kidnapping and killing a 61-year-old Indian woman and her 10-month grand-daughter.
Correctional authorities in the US announced his execution date.
However, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s moratorium on death penalty announced in 2015 may give him some reprieve.
According to a PTI report, federal authorities in the US alleged that killings were part of a botched kidnapping-for-ransom plot.
Yandamuri, who hails from Andhra Pradesh and had come to the US on an H-1B visa, is an advanced degree holder in electrical and computer science engineering.
Following his conviction, he asked that death penalty be imposed upon him. Later he appealed his sentence, but lost his appeal last April.
The local Times Herald yesterday reported that even though his execution by lethal injection is set for February 23, he might get a reprieve because a death penalty moratorium previously was put in place by 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 in a news release.
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.
(With inputs from PTI)
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