1982 Wilkes-Barre shootings

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The 1982 Wilkes-Barre shootings was a spree shooting which occurred in the United States on September 25, 1982, carried out by George Emil Banks, a former Camp Hill prison guard. Banks fatally shot 13 people in Wilkes-Barre and Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania. The victims included seven children – five being his own – their mothers, their relatives, and one bystander. Banks' attorneys argued for the insanity defense, but following a trial, Banks was convicted of 12 counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On November 29, 1990, the Pennsylvania State Legislature barred further use of the electric chair amid debate that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment; it approved execution by lethal injection. Banks's case was appealed and, on December 2, 2004, he received a stay of execution following a determination that he was incompetent for execution. On May 12, 2010, Banks was declared incompetent to be executed, following a competency hearing held the previous month. On...

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