The Pennsylvania Equal Justice Project was established in January 2001 by a Civic Journalism class at Duquesne University to investigate the legal, governmental, and community processes that impact the just implementation of the death penalty in Pennsylvania. Initial research focused on the role of these processes in the cases of four individuals from western Pennsylvania who have been sentenced to death.

Our initial findings suggest that social and governmental agencies fail to dedicate sufficient resources to:

• Combat the social ills prevalent in the backgrounds of those sentenced to death and other violent offenders.
  
• Provide adequate levels of legal defense as required under Pennsylvanian and federal law.

The faces on this page are the faces of Pennsylvanians who have been sentenced to death. Theirs are not stories of innocence, nor are they stories of equal justice. They are stories of murder and tragedy. They are stories of mental illness and incomprehensible atrocities. They are stories of community and government neglect. They are stories of four Pennsylvanians who were ignored until the time came to impose an irrevocable punishment upon them.
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