HARRISBURG – Gov. Edward G. Rendell has signed execution warrants for Jerome Marshall, 46, who murdered three people, including a 2-year-old girl, in 1983 in Philadelphia; and William L. Wright III, 46, who in 1998 shot to death the husband of an Altoona woman with whom he had an affair.
In 1983, Marshall was living with Sharon Saunders, her 2-year-old daughter, Karima, and Saunders’ cousin Myndie McKoy, while Saunders’ husband was away in the Army. Marshall confessed to police to killing the three females, and in 1984, a jury returned three first-degree murder convictions against Marshall, sentencing him to death. After several rounds of appeals, the state Supreme Court finally denied Marshall’s request for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act and denied reargument in December 2008.
Wright briefly had a romantic relationship with Tammy Mowery while she was separated from her husband, James, but the couple later reconciled. On the morning of November 26, 1998, Wright broke into the Mowerys’ house and shot James three times in the back and two times in the head. In 2000, a jury found Wright guilty of first-degree murder, simple assault, aggravated assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, burglary, and criminal trespass and sentenced him to death. The state Supreme Court affirmed that judgment in December 2008.
Marshall‘s execution by lethal injection is set for Sept. 1, and Wright’s is set for Sept. 3. Both are held at the State Correctional Institution at Greene.
With the warrants signed, Rendell has now signed 94 death warrants.
