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Thread: Herbert John Blakeney - Pennsylvania Death Row

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    Herbert John Blakeney - Pennsylvania Death Row


    Herbert Blakeney


    Facts of the Crime:

    On August 8, 2002, Blakeney was sentenced to death in Dauphin County for slashing the throat of his 14-month-old stepson in his estranged wife's apartment on North 14th Street on February 2, 2000 while police pleaded with him to put down an eight-inch butcher knife. Blakeney was shot three times by police responding to the incident but later recovered from his injuries.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On February 24, 2009, Blakeney filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/pen...cv00343/75226/

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Pa. Supreme Court denies death row inmate's appeal nearly 14 years after baby's murder

    Nearly 14 years after the slaying of a baby in front of Harrisburg police officers, the state Supreme Court has denied Herbert Blakeney's appeal.

    The high court's ruling, issued Monday, allows for the Blakeney's death sentence to move forward.

    Blakeney murdered Basil Blakeney, his 14-month-old step-son, on Feb. 2, 2000, after breaking into a Harrisburg apartment and slitting the infant's throat, as officers urged him to put down an 8-inch butcher knife.

    Leading up to the death, Blakeney's estranged wife had called the police several times, and officers had escorted Blakeney from the woman's apartment the afternoon before the fatal early morning attack.

    During the crime, Blakeney stabbed the woman in her North 14th Street apartment before he was confronted by an officer. He then threatened the officer with the knife and ran away with the infant, who he nearly decapitated, before police shot Blakeney three times. Blakeney later recovered from his injuries.

    The ruling affirmed the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County's ruling to deny, without a hearing, Blakeney's petition for relief under Pennsylvania's Post-Conviction Relief Act. The ruling asserted that Blakeney could not show the court any evidence against his conviction that was not available at trial, which could possibly change the outcome of the trial.

    A jury convicted Blakeney of first-degree murder and sentenced him to lethal injection on Aug. 9, 2004. At the time of the conviction, Blakeney denied any guilt and said he was framed by police.

    Blakeney previously appealed his case, claiming there was insufficient evidence to support his murder conviction and that a judge had erred in allowing him to serve as his own attorney during the murder trial.

    According to previous PennLive reports, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille wrote the 25-page majority opinion in 2008 upholding Blakeney's death sentence.

    "Appellant's cold-hearted conduct in repeatedly cutting the neck of Basil, a vital part of the baby's body, with a deadly weapon, clearly established his specific intent to kill," Castille wrote in the 2008 opinion.

    In 2004, a U.S. Middle District judge threw out the man's $49 million civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit against Dauphin County, county commissioners, county courts, the district attorney, public defender, Harrisburg police, officers and legal services.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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    Pennsylvania v. Blakeney

    Opinion Date: December 29, 2014

    Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

    In this capital case, Herbert Blakeney, a.k.a. Shabazz Muhammad, appealed a Court of Common Pleas order that denied his petition for relief under the Post Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”) without a hearing. Blakeney was convicted for the stabbing deaths of his wife and her 14-month old son in the early morning hours of February 2, 2000. After careful consideration of Blakeney's arguments on appeal, the Supreme Court found that the PCRA court properly dismissed his petition for post-conviction relief without a hearing.
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Blakeney's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Eastern District
    Case Nos.: (653 CAP)
    Decision Date: December 29, 2014
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    Executions scheduled for 3, but Wolf's moratorium continues

    Pennsylvania prison officials are scheduling three executions but it's likely they won't go forward because the governor has put in place a capital punishment moratorium.

    Corrections Secretary John Wetzel on Wednesday signed notices that put Maurice Patterson, Hector Morales and Herbert Blakeney on schedule to be executed over the coming two months.

    But Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has already issued three reprieves for other death row inmates and says he'll continue to issue them, at least until he gets an overdue legislative study on the death penalty.

    There's another execution barrier — the prison system doesn't currently have the mixture of drugs required by law.

    Wolf's spokesman says he'll continue to issue reprieves for any imminent executions. The state Supreme Court is reviewing Wolf's policy.

    http://www.thecourierexpress.com/new...c0a051b0c.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Blakeney has gotten an execution date for September 3.

    http://fox43.com/2015/07/15/executio...rales-of-york/

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Deadlock on Pa. Supreme Court foils Harrisburg man's bid to escape death sentence for son's murder

    By Matt Miller
    Pennlive

    A deadlock on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has thwarted the latest attempt by a Harrisburg man to get off death row for the murder of his 14-month-old son.

    That deadlock was announced Friday by an evenly-split panel of the high court that had weighed the most recent appeal by 52-year-old Herbert Blakeney.

    In that appeal, Blakeney tried to use the email scandal that prompted the resignation of former Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin as a lever to overturn a Dauphin County judge's decision to dismiss his most recent attempt to void his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence for the February 2000 murder of his son Basil.

    Police said Blakeney stabbed his estranged wife, then cut his son's throat with a butcher knife as a city police officer yelled at him to release the child. Blakeney only released the boy's body when the officer shot him.

    The issue that deadlocked the Supreme Court was whether to accept Blakeney's argument that "new evidence" in the form of the Eakin email scandal should override county Judge John F. Cherry's finding that Blakeney's latest appeal was untimely filed.

    The Supreme Court's deadlock on the matter means Cherry's denial stands.

    As Justice David N. Wecht noted in an opinion on the case, Blakeney, who is black and a Muslim, argued on appeal that emails found in Eakin's possession that were deemed racist undermined Eakin's ability to fairly weigh Blakeney's earlier appeals of his murder conviction. Eakin did participate with the rest of the court in a 2008 denial of a Blakeney appeal.

    Blakeney based his latest appeal on what he claimed was newly-discovered evidence provided by an October 2015 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. That media outlet and others reported on the existence of the Eakin emails. An investigation ensued and Eakin resigned in March 2016.

    Since he couldn't have known about the Eakin emails, or any prejudice they might have caused to his case, before October 2015, his latest appeal should have been accepted by Cherry, Blakeney argued.

    He contended as well that the county district attorney's office should have been disqualified from involvement in his appeals because former DA Ed Marsico and current DA Fran Chardo received some of the same emails as Eakin. Marsico and Chardo provided sworn affidavits stating they neither responded to nor forwarded those emails, Wecht noted.

    The Supreme Court tied 2-2 on Blakeney's arguments.

    Wecht and Justice Christine L. Donohue concluded Blakeney's latest appeal was not untimely filed and should be reconsidered because of the newly discovered evidence of the Eakin emails. Justices Kevin M. Dougherty and Sallie Updyke Mundy disagreed.

    Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor and Justices Max Baer and Debra Todd, who were on the high court when the Eakin email scandal arose, did not participate in the consideration of the Blakeney appeal.

    https://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/0...e_court_f.html

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