Tell Us: Death or Life in Prison for Hitcho?

A Northampton County jury in the first degree Thursday in the Robert Lasso.

The case now enters the penalty phase in which Hitcho will be sentenced to either death or life in prison.

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Three people have been executed since Pennsylvania reinstituted capital punishment in 1978. There were two executions in 1995 and one in 1999. In those cases, the convicts ended appeals and asked for death, according to a Philly.com report.

Hitcho shot Lasso as the officer responded to a complaint called in by a neighbor on Aug. 11. Lasso was fighting off a pair of snarling dogs with his back to the rear door of the home when Hitcho opened fire and killed him.

The jury dismissed defense arguments that Hitcho's mental ability was impaired by a series of head injuries and that he was afraid and angry and did not shoot Lasso with any malicious intent.