A Notice of Execution was signed for Eric Frein, a man who killed a Pennsylvania state trooper and injured another in an ambush attack that led to an extensive manhunt more than five years ago.
Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel signed the notice on Monday, setting June 22, 2020, for the execution date.
The state has a moratorium on executions under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. The state's last execution was in 1999, and it has executed only three people since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.
“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,” a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections wrote.
"Governor Wolf issues temporary reprieves if a warrant reaches his desk without further appeals. We are not yet at that point in this case."
Frein, 37, killed Cpl. Bryon Dickson II with two shots fired from the woods near the Blooming Grove state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania in September 2014. He also wounded Trooper Alex Douglass so badly he has needed at least 18 major surgeries.
Frein was identified as the suspect in the shootings leading to an extensive manhunt that culminated in his arrest 48 days after the attack.
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Prosecutors have said Frein spoke of wanting to start a revolution and described Dickson's slaying as an "assassination." Frein allegedly said he wanted to "wake people up" and "make a change (in government)."
The Pennsylvania State Trooper Association released a statement on the execution notice.
"One trooper’s children are growing up without their father, and another is living with serious injuries for the rest of his life," a spokesperson wrote. "Gov. Tom Wolf should sign this coward’s death warrant and end his life.”
Frein is currently being held on death row at SCI Greene, a maximum security prison.
