Beren
Moderator Emeritus
I grew up in Apollo, PA. I remember the memorial and the news of this officer's senseless murder. One of the murderers just got a new trial awarded to him because his lawyer was found to be "ineffective."
http://post-gazette.com/pg/06222/712432-53.stm
'80 'kill-for-thrill' defendant, on death row, gets new trial
Thursday, August 10, 2006
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rabe Marsh represented John Lesko, one of the "kill-for-thrill" defendants, for 19 straight years -- through a death penalty trial and two sentencing hearings.
But it seems his greatest service to Mr. Lesko came this week, when a court found that he was ineffective and granted his former client a new trial -- and another shot at beating the death penalty.
In a 74-page opinion, Westmoreland County Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr. found that Mr. Marsh, who had never handled a death penalty case before, was "woefully deficient" in representing Mr. Lesko at his first trial in 1981 and at his resentencing in 1995.
Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck has already filed notice of appeal. If he loses, he said he will retry Mr. Lesko, and again seek the death penalty.
"I think I'd be doing a disservice to the people of this county, and my office, if I didn't seek the death penalty," he said.
But Robert Dunham, the attorney representing Mr. Lesko in his appeal, said the case could end immediately with a plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole.
"We would hope the commonwealth would take a breath ... and not make a reflexive political decision on how to act," Mr. Dunham said. "It need not continue to go on indefinitely."
Mr. Lesko and Michael Travaglia were convicted and sentenced to die in the Jan. 3, 1980, murder of rookie Apollo police officer Leonard Miller, the last victim in an eight-day killing rampage that stretched from Downtown to Indiana County to Westmoreland County.
After winning an appeal, both men were granted new sentencing hearings. Mr. Lesko had his in 1995 and a jury again gave him the death penalty.
But Judge McCormick determined that at that hearing, Mr. Marsh failed to present overwhelming evidence of child abuse and brain damage that could have prompted the jury to spare Mr. Lesko's life.
Records showed that Mr. Lesko grew up in filth, played with dead rats, and was set on fire by neighborhood children. An evaluation by a neuropsychologist showed he has brain damage, that Judge McCormick said would be a "significant mitigating factor."
"In page after page, entry after entry, the records describe an existence that is so appalling that it is almost beyond belief," the judge wrote. "As [Mr. Lesko's] aunt testified at the first trial, 'John lived in hell from day one.' "
During the 1995 re-sentencing, Mr. Marsh was joined in Mr. Lesko's defense by Brian O'Leary. Several years later, during the appeal hearing, Mr. O'Leary told Judge McCormick that at the time he thought Mr. Marsh was "burned out, basically, and he needed a huge gust of wind, inspiration, to really carry this thing through."
Mr. Marsh did not return a phone call seeking comment, but Mr. Dunham defended him yesterday.
"Rabe Marsh is a very decent man," he said. "One thing that's important to understand, because a person's ineffective in a given case, that should not color how his career is perceived."
Besides failing to present mitigating evidence in the 1995 re-sentencing, the judge found that Mr. Marsh denied his client the opportunity to testify at his first trial, and that the prosecution withheld information that could have been used to impeach a witness against him.
Because of that, Judge McCormick said, Mr. Lesko deserves a new trial.
But Mr. Peck said that even if there were errors, they did not rise to the level that they'd change the outcome of the case.
"The evidence showed, indisputably, that Lesko perpetrated, or was involved in, four brutal homicides," Mr. Peck said. "Even if the errors were corrected, he still would have been found guilty and still would have received the death penalty."
http://post-gazette.com/pg/06222/712432-53.stm
'80 'kill-for-thrill' defendant, on death row, gets new trial
Thursday, August 10, 2006
By Paula Reed Ward, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rabe Marsh represented John Lesko, one of the "kill-for-thrill" defendants, for 19 straight years -- through a death penalty trial and two sentencing hearings.
But it seems his greatest service to Mr. Lesko came this week, when a court found that he was ineffective and granted his former client a new trial -- and another shot at beating the death penalty.
In a 74-page opinion, Westmoreland County Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr. found that Mr. Marsh, who had never handled a death penalty case before, was "woefully deficient" in representing Mr. Lesko at his first trial in 1981 and at his resentencing in 1995.
Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck has already filed notice of appeal. If he loses, he said he will retry Mr. Lesko, and again seek the death penalty.
"I think I'd be doing a disservice to the people of this county, and my office, if I didn't seek the death penalty," he said.
But Robert Dunham, the attorney representing Mr. Lesko in his appeal, said the case could end immediately with a plea and a sentence of life in prison without parole.
"We would hope the commonwealth would take a breath ... and not make a reflexive political decision on how to act," Mr. Dunham said. "It need not continue to go on indefinitely."
Mr. Lesko and Michael Travaglia were convicted and sentenced to die in the Jan. 3, 1980, murder of rookie Apollo police officer Leonard Miller, the last victim in an eight-day killing rampage that stretched from Downtown to Indiana County to Westmoreland County.
After winning an appeal, both men were granted new sentencing hearings. Mr. Lesko had his in 1995 and a jury again gave him the death penalty.
But Judge McCormick determined that at that hearing, Mr. Marsh failed to present overwhelming evidence of child abuse and brain damage that could have prompted the jury to spare Mr. Lesko's life.
Records showed that Mr. Lesko grew up in filth, played with dead rats, and was set on fire by neighborhood children. An evaluation by a neuropsychologist showed he has brain damage, that Judge McCormick said would be a "significant mitigating factor."
"In page after page, entry after entry, the records describe an existence that is so appalling that it is almost beyond belief," the judge wrote. "As [Mr. Lesko's] aunt testified at the first trial, 'John lived in hell from day one.' "
During the 1995 re-sentencing, Mr. Marsh was joined in Mr. Lesko's defense by Brian O'Leary. Several years later, during the appeal hearing, Mr. O'Leary told Judge McCormick that at the time he thought Mr. Marsh was "burned out, basically, and he needed a huge gust of wind, inspiration, to really carry this thing through."
Mr. Marsh did not return a phone call seeking comment, but Mr. Dunham defended him yesterday.
"Rabe Marsh is a very decent man," he said. "One thing that's important to understand, because a person's ineffective in a given case, that should not color how his career is perceived."
Besides failing to present mitigating evidence in the 1995 re-sentencing, the judge found that Mr. Marsh denied his client the opportunity to testify at his first trial, and that the prosecution withheld information that could have been used to impeach a witness against him.
Because of that, Judge McCormick said, Mr. Lesko deserves a new trial.
But Mr. Peck said that even if there were errors, they did not rise to the level that they'd change the outcome of the case.
"The evidence showed, indisputably, that Lesko perpetrated, or was involved in, four brutal homicides," Mr. Peck said. "Even if the errors were corrected, he still would have been found guilty and still would have received the death penalty."
