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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Newly elected Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is imposing a moratorium on the death penalty. He calls the state's current system of capital punishment "error-prone, expensive and anything but infallible." The Democrat had announced during his fall campaign he intended to issue such an order. Wolf said Friday the moratorium will remain in effect at least until he receives a report from a legislative commission that's been studying the topic for about four years.

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BARRETT TWP., Pa. - Another tool in the police arsenal used to try to find an accused cop killer has not been as useful as hoped, officials said. A surveillance balloon borrowed from the Ohio Department of Transportation has been returned, according to State police spokesman Tom Kelly. The unmanned mylar balloon was not helpful, due to the tree canopy and rugged terrain of the search area, Kelly said Wednesday. Authorities have been searching for 31-year-old Eric Frein for more than six weeks. Frein is the lone suspect in the ambush shooting of two state police officers in the parking...

PHILADELPHIA — The helium-filled balloon that was deployed to search for Pennsylvania fugitive Eric Frein has been returned to Ohio. “Due to the tree canopy and rugged terrain of our search area, the balloon was not as helpful as everyone hoped it would be,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Tom Kelly. The dense woods of the Poconos have hampered every method of searching for Frein, police have said. The terrain has made it difficult for officers to search for the slaying suspect on foot, with search dogs, with helicopters and now the unmanned balloon.

Friends and strangers are rallying to help a man whom police have repeatedly mistaken for Eric Frein James Tully, who doesn't own a car and who walks 5 miles to work every day, has been mistaken for Frein more than 20 times by heavily-armed law enforcement scouring the Pocono mountain region for Frein, On at least one occasion, Tully, 39, claims he was forced to the ground and had a rifle pointed at his head by an officer as he walked to his job along a heavily wooded road near where Frein is believed to be hiding, according to the...

James Tully, of Candensis, does not own a car and walks to work through the search area. He has been stopped and questioned by authorities numerous times, eventually being forced to the ground at gunpoint. The man who has been stopped by police numerous times while walking to work through the manhunt search area has been overwhelmed by the public's response, according to his mother, Linda Waddington Tully. There have been offers of vehicles, a fundraiser, and lots of media attention. James Tully, 39, lives off Snow Hill Road in Canadensis, which has been a key area in the search...

James Tully of Canadensis, who has to walk to work in the heart of the Eric Frein search area, has been stopped by police more than 20 times, including an encounter Friday night when he says he was roughed by an officer. Police searching for Eric Frein have questioned James Tully so many times that he started carrying his driver’s license and work identification on a neck lanyard to prove his identity. But that wasn’t enough to keep him from being forced to the ground by gunpoint Friday on Route 447, and being held there, face down in the gravel,...

Two fresh sightings of alleged sniper Eric Frein has resulted in more closed public schools in northern Pennsylvania and a shift in a massive manhunt to near where Mr. Frein went to high school – and where he was a member of the high school rifle team. The pressing question of how a single man has outmaneuvered 1,000 trained law enforcement officers in the Pocono Mountains for over five weeks suggests that Frein has used a home-field advantage, long-term planning, and survival skills to resemble a “wilderness ninja,” a term some use to describe a rare breed of native scouts...

This isn’t the first time Eric Matthew Frein fled to avoid prosecution. The Canandensis man suspected of gunning down two Pennsylvania state troopers was set to go to trial in Schuyler County, New York on theft charges on April 6, 2006. But when the case was called, it was learned he had fled — possibly to the very same woods police say he has now taken refuge as he continues to elude the massive manhunt. The decision to skip his New York trial cost Frein 109 days in jail for a charge the prosecutor in the case, Matthew Hayden, said...

It is likely the most intense manhunt in the history of the Pennsylvania State Police, which insists it will spend every waking moment to find Eric Frein, the man they believe ambushed two of their own. But that's not all they're spending. Three hundred troopers a day are filling the woods in Pike and Monroe Counties in a 24-7 search for Frein that began more than a month ago. State police say they don't have cost estimates but calculations by the Allentown Morning-Call show that PSP is spending $1.1 million a week just in added labor costs. Throw in hundreds...

The manhunt for accused Pennsylvania cop-killer Eric Frein is costing at least $1.1 million per week and has drawn in 300 troopers. Frein, 31, a self-described survivalist and military reenactor, has been hiding out in eastern Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountain region after he allegedly gunned down one state trooper and wounded another on Sept. 12. Up to 150 state police working in 12-hour shifts have been searching the steep, rocky and wooded terrain for five weeks, the Allentown Morning Call reported. But authorities may catch a break with the change in seasons. Price Township locals are already reporting a thinning of...

A Pennsylvania town has banned trick-or-treating this year while hundreds of law enforcement officials search nearby woods for accused cop killer Eric Frein. The Barrett Township said its annual Halloween parade and 5K Scarecrow Race are canceled indefinitely, and trick-or-treating is banned this year, as the dragnet for Frein is now in its fourth week. The suspect is believed to be hiding out in thick woods near the town. "This parade is probably one of the biggest events that the town has every year," Ralph Megliola, chairman of the township's Board of Supervisors, told ABC News today. "Everyone looks forward...

The 18-year-old sister of a suspect in a deadly police ambush said she thinks her brother, Eric Frein, has fled the Pocono Mountain woods, according to a story in The Morning Call. Tiffany Frein told the Call she believes the intensive manhunt has failed to capture her brother because he is no longer in the deep woods where officers are looking for him.

DNA testing was inconclusive on soiled diapers thought to have been left by Pennsylvania police ambush suspect Eric Frein, the FBI said Friday. The diapers had been exposed to the elements, so "you can’t say one way or the other" whether Frein wore them, said Edward Hanko, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia FBI office. State police announced last week they had discovered diapers in the northeastern Pennsylvania woods where Frein is believed to be hiding, and that he might have worn them so he could remain stationary for long periods of time.

Two state troopers fell from a tree stand Wednesday night during the search for Eric Frein and were injured, according to a state police official. The troopers entered a wooden tree stand to clear the structure and ensure it was not occupied around 7 p.m. The tree stand was a man-made hunting blind elevated roughly 20 feet off the ground and attached to a tree. While inside the stand, the floor collapsed and both men fell to the ground. They were treated by tactical medics at the scene. At the advice of the medics, both troopers were air-lifted to Lehigh...

BLOOMING GROVE, PA - State police searching for a man accused of killing a state trooper said Tuesday they found two pipe bombs in the Pennsylvania woods during their manhunt. Lt. Col. George Bivens said the bombs were fully functional but not deployed. He says they could have been set off by either a trip wire or fuse, but appear to be among items that were hastily discarded.

EAST STROUDSBURG Pa. (Reuters) - The manhunt for the suspect in the ambush that killed a Pennsylvania trooper and wounded another won't stop the opening of deer-hunting season in the Pocono Mountains, one of most prized spots in the Northeast for game, authorities said on Monday. Beginning Saturday, bow hunters can enter the deep woods of the region even if the search for the suspect, Eric Frein, is still under way, more than three weeks after the September 12 shooting. Since then, hundreds of officers, supported by armored vehicles and helicopters, have combed the forests of northeastern Pennsylvania looking for...

A law firm is soliciting residents in Pike and Monroe counties who have been affected by police activity related to the manhunt for Eric Frein, the suspect in the Sept. 12 Pennsylvania State Police ambush that left one trooper dead and wounded another. Joshua Prince, of the Bechtelsville, Pa.-based Prince Law Offices, posted a message on the firm's website Monday night encouraging residents to contact the firm if they believe their rights have been violated by police during the search for Frein, who is sought in the shooting outside the state police Blooming Grove barracks in Pike County. "If you...

The search area in the manhunt for accused cop-killer Eric Frein is narrowing amid a wave of "credible" tips, authorities said Monday. "I do believe we are close to him at this point," Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said, confirming that search teams were focusing on an area in northern Monroe County near the border of Pike County. Frein, 31, is accused of fatally shooting Cpl. Bryon Dickson and critically wounding Trooper Alex Douglass in a Sept. 12 ambush on the Blooming Grove barracks that landed him on the FBI's most-wanted list. Police believe he has been hiding...

CANADENSIS, Pa. – Nine days after a gunman opened fire in a deadly ambush at a state police barracks, authorities have had no contact with the suspect they describe as a self-taught survivalist despite an intensive search that shut down the heavily wooded community where he lived with his parents. Though a shelter-in-place order had been lifted in the Pocono Mountains community where police have focused their search, they continued to urge residents to be vigilant Sunday as the manhunt continues for Eric Frein. Frein's father, retired Army Maj. E. Michael Frein, told police that he had taught his son...