Oct 9, 2014 1 min read

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a death warrant Oct. 6 for convicted killer Richard Baumhammers as Baumhammers, 49, exhausted his state appeals. The execution was set for Dec. 3.

However, a federal judge stayed the execution Oct. 7, pending additional appeals.

Baumhammers, a former immigration attorney, was convicted of first-degree murder by an Allegheny County jury in May 2001, and was sentenced to death Sept. 6 of the same year.

He murdered five people on April 28, 2000, including a Jewish neighbor Anita Gordon, in what prosecutors described as a racially-motivated act.

Also killed that day were two men of Asian descent, a black man and one man from India. Another man from India, who was shot and paralyzed, died in February 2007. The murders occurred in Allegheny and Beaver counties.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, the state has executed only three inmates, all of whom had voluntarily given up their right to appeal. The last was executed in 1999.