Jury Sentences Sniper in Pennsylvania Police Ambush to Death

A jury delivered the death sentence late Wednesday against a gunman convicted of shooting two Pennsylvania state troopers in a late-night ambush on their barracks in 2014. One of the troopers was killed in the attack, while the second was left with major injuries. Prosecutors said 33-year-old Eric Frein had been hoping to start an uprising against the government when he launched the attack on the Blooming Grove barracks in the Pocono Mountains. After several hours of deliberations Wednesday, a jury sided with District Attorney Ray Tonkin, who told the court that “full justice is sentencing this defendant to death.” In a tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Pike County sheriff rang a bell on top of the courthouse eight times after the sentencing was announced to alert the public that Frein had been condemned to death. Frein’s lawyers had tried to dissuade jurors from issuing a death sentence by portraying him as a victim of an unhealthy childhood with an abusive father. His lawyers promised to seek an appeal. With a moratorium on capital punishment imposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, it is unlikely that Frein would face lethal injection any time in the near future.