Jury Sentences Cop Killer To Death

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A jury has decided that a man they convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Pennsylvania police officer should get the death penalty.  The jury reached the unanimous verdict Thursday against 31-year-old Rahmael Sal Holt.  Holt was convicted Tuesday in the November 2017 slaying of New Kensington officer Brian Shaw.  Prosecutors contend Holt was an armed drug dealer who had planned to rob the driver of the SUV that Shaw attempted to stop in Old Kensington in Westmoreland County on the night of the shooting. Holt has maintained that he wasn’t the person who fired.  The death penalty remains legal in 29 U.S. states, although four of those states, including Pennsylvania, have a moratorium on executions.