Montco DA Considers Seeking Death Penalty For 1st Time In Homicide Case In A Decade

NORRISTOWN, PA — Montgomery County prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty against a man accused of killing a woman and her unborn child, representing the first time the district attorney's office has sought capital punishment in a number of years.

The announcement was reportedly made during what was supposed to be Rafiq Thompson's formal arraignment this week in Montgomery County Court, according to local media reports.

Thompson is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of his ex-girlfriend, 31-year-old Tamara Cornelius, and her unborn child.

Related: Murder Suspect Charged With Killing An Unborn Child In KOP

Prosecutors say Thompson, 39, shot Cornelius around 10:22 p.m. April 8 outside of the Exxon station at 113 N. Gulph Road.

Investigators said they determined that the two had a prior relationship before the killing.

A local news report said this week that prosecutors are weighing whether to put the death penalty on the table, which would be a first for Montgomery County in about a decade.

Patch reached out to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office to get confirmation about the possibility of the death penalty being sought in this case, and a reporter was told that prosecutors are indeed "considering it."

Director of Communications Kate Delano said Thompson's defense attorney must provide mitigating evidence, if there is any, before the the district attorney's office determines whether to seek the death penalty.

Thompson's formal arraignment has now been moved to 8 a.m. Aug. 22 at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

The death penalty has had an interesting history in the commonwealth.

Pennsylvania began carrying out public hangings back in the 1600s, although the Keystone State also became the first across the nation to outlaw public executions in 1834, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

State courts ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in the early 1970s, but the legislature eventually rewrote the statute and executions ultimately restarted later that decade.

In early 2015, the state's current governor, Tom Wolf, issued a blanket moratorium on the death penalty, essentially outlawing the practice in Pennsylvania. The governor gave as his reason for the moratorium a desire to review a report about how capital punishment is carried out in the commonwealth.

Since that time, some criminal defendants have been given the death penalty — yet the sentence is, for all intents and purposes, an empty threat since no one is being put to death today.

Only three people have been put to death in the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978 — the last of whom was infamous Philadelphia torture-murderer Gary Heidnik in the summer of 1999.

It is not immediately clear whether the death penalty moratorium would end after Wolf concludes his final term, and whether a future governor would have the ability to rescind or amend the moratorium order.

Indications are that the moratorium would end with Wolf leaving office, but Patch was unable to get confirmation of this by the publication of this story.