HARRISBURG, Pa. – Governor Tom Wolf, today, issued a temporary reprieve of the execution of Michael Ballard, whose execution had been set for October 19th.
The reprieve will remain in effect until the governor has received and reviewed the forthcoming report of the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment, and any recommendations contained therein are satisfactorily addressed.
Ballard pleaded guilty in April 2011 to four counts of first degree murder for savagely knifing to death his former girlfriend, Denise Merhi, 39; her father, Dennis Marsh, 62; her grandfather, Alvin Marsh Jr., 87; and Steven Zernhelt, 53, a neighbor in Northampton who heard screams and tried to help.
At the time of the June 26, 2010, massacre, Ballard had recently been paroled from prison, where he served 17 years for murdering an Allentown man nearly two decades earlier.
A Northampton County jury sentenced Ballard to death on May 17, 2011. The state Supreme Court upheld Ballard’s sentence in 2013, citing overwhelming evidence in support of it.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in Pennsylvania, only three scheduled executions have been carried out. All three occurred after the inmates voluntarily waived their right to appeal. Gary Heidnik of Philadelphia, was the last death row inmate to be executed in Pennsylvania in 1999.
