Gov. Ed Rendell this week signed a warrant to execute a Punxsutawney man for killing a night watchman eight years ago, but the victim's brother doubts the sentence will ever be carried out.

"He'll outlive me," David M. Planker said yesterday of convicted killer Robert G. Rega. "This is going to go on forever. They usually do. I have no reason to suspect it'll be any other way."

Mr. Planker said he would like to see Mr. Rega die just like his victim, Christopher Lauth.

"I think this lethal injection thing is too easy," Mr. Planker, 70, said from his Florida home. "I thought the penalty should be they should have held him captive with a butcher knife to his throat, beat on him for about 45 minutes in the head, told him he had to pray for his life and shot him three times because that's what he did to my brother."

One of the lawyers who represented Mr. Rega during his trial declined to comment, and an attorney handling his appeal could not be reached.

A jury convicted Mr. Rega in June 2002 of killing Mr. Lauth in December 2000. Mr. Lauth, 50, of Marienville, Forest County, had been working security at Gateway Lodge, a Jefferson County bed-and-breakfast in Cook Forest.

Mr. Rega, 41, a former night watchman himself at Gateway Lodge, conspired with several others to rob a safe containing $20,000 at the bed and breakfast. Mr. Rega shot Mr. Lauth as he knelt at gunpoint.

Mr. Rega is scheduled to die Sept. 18 by lethal injection. He is the 79th person for whom Mr. Rendell has signed a death warrant and joins 224 others on death row.

But even the governor's office acknowledges that history and an expected lengthy appeals process make a speedy execution doubtful.

"That's the expectation, only because that's what's happened with the 78 prior death warrants," said Mark Shade, a spokesman for the governor.

Last year, Gov. Rendell described a "de facto moratorium" on executions in the state. Pennsylvania's last execution took place in 1999, when Gary Heidnik was put to death for killing two women he had imprisoned in his home. In that case, Mr. Heidnik stopped filing appeals, hastening the process.

"There's a lot of frustration, and rightly so. The sentence is not likely to be carried out in a number of these cases," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Many death row inmates in Pennsylvania could have their sentences overturned or die of natural causes, Mr. Dieter said, adding that the long lags between sentencing and execution is not unique to Pennsylvania.

"These cases are complicated. There's always a chance you've got the wrong guy so you can't cut out the appeal, you can't cut out the lawyers, and each one is a major, expensive battle," Mr. Dieter said.

Across the nation last year there were 42 executions -- 26 of them in Texas, according to Mr. Dieter. In Pennsylvania, the governor signs death warrants at a much earlier stage than in other states, Mr. Dieter said, leading to an unrealistic execution date.

Also, the process can move more quickly outside of Pennsylvania. In Texas, he said, governors don't slow the process and courts don't overturn sentences as often.

"I think it comes down to a popular ambivalence about the death penalty. They don't want to get rid of it, but they don't want to be like Texas," Mr. Dieter said. "Even though it's a frustrating and costly kind of stalemate, it's hard to push people in either direction toward many executions or no executions."

Jefferson County District Attorney Jeffrey D. Burkett said seeking the death penalty for Mr. Rega was a clear-cut decision.

"There was no debate in my mind," Mr. Burkett said yesterday. "We prosecuted him because he did a terrible thing."

Mr. Rega hatched his plans to rob a safe and automated teller machine from his former employers at Gateway Lodge several days before Christmas 2000 because he and three friends were short of money for presents. Mr. Rega has two daughters.

No one was supposed to get hurt, according to details in a lengthy opinion issued last year by the state Supreme Court affirming the death sentence. But things went amiss almost immediately.

The group assumed Mr. Lauth would not be outside when they pulled up in a distinctive old car that needed body work. But he was. So Mr. Rega and his accomplices jumped out with stockings over their heads and forced Mr. Lauth inside the building.

Mr. Rega hit Mr. Lauth with his own flashlight, as did another accomplice. Before the group left, Mr. Rega was left alone with his victim. His accomplices, who were waiting outside, "heard a gunshot, a scream, a gurgling sound, and then another couple of gun shots."

It was never clear exactly why Mr. Lauth was killed, although an accomplice told police that Mr. Rega said "someone's name had been mentioned during the robbery, potentially revealing their identity to the victim," according to the Supreme Court opinion.

State police quickly identified Mr. Rega as a suspect. In short order, his accomplices turned on him.

Mr. Planker called Mr. Lauth a quiet and good-natured man who was a passionate volunteer firefighter in Marienville. He wore thick glasses and had suffered some brain damage as an infant, but held down jobs and was married at one point for five years.

Mr. Planker said he found no comfort in the signing of the death warrant.

"I was in shock when they had a date set," Mr. Planker said. "No, it doesn't give me any relief because it's not going to happen."