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Thread: Stephen Rex Edmiston - Pennsylvania Death Row

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    Stephen Rex Edmiston - Pennsylvania Death Row


    Bobbi Jo Matthew





    Facts of the Crime:

    Convicted of abducting two-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew from her home in Beccaria, Clearfield County, on October 5, 1988 and driving her to a remote area in northern Cambria County, where he raped, beat and scalped her.

    Edmiston was sentenced to death in Cambria County on November 17, 1989.

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    Office gathers records for murder appeal

    Workers in the Cambria County's clerk of courts office have been busy packing boxes of documents to go to the state Supreme Court in the appeal of death-row inmate Stephen Rex Edmiston.

    Defense attorneys are seeking to overturn Edmiston's 1989 conviction in the brutal slaying of a young girl on a number of grounds, including challenges to hair evidence found in Edmiston's truck.

    Susan Kuhar, clerk of courts, said her office is boxing the original record plus nine copies of anything filed from the time of Edmiston's last appeal in 2000.

    "Each stack is probably 2 feet high and the original record is probably 3 feet high," Kuhar said.

    She said it cost the county $1,200 to get the copies made and will probably cost several hundred dollars to mail.

    The process involves a lot of manpower as well.

    Arlene Farabaugh, 1st deputy in the clerk of courts office, has been working for a week getting the documents ready.

    "We're not finished," Farabaugh said. "We're still in the process of punching holes and getting it ready to go."

    Edmiston, 52, from Huntingdon County, is on death row at the SCI-Greene in southwestern Pennsylvania.

    In 1989, in a nonjury trial before Judge Gerard Long, Edmiston was convicted of 1st-degree murder, rape and related offenses in the kidnapping of 2 1/2-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew.

    Three months later, a jury brought in from Northampton County sentenced him to death in a separate penalty phase.

    The child was taken from a crib at her grandmother’s home early Oct. 5, 1988, near Beccaria, Clearfield County. Her body was found 2 days later at a remote site in Reade Township in northern Cambria County.

    Despite a confession, Edmiston has maintained his innocence and has filed several appeals. The Innocence Project of New York and the Federal Defenders Association of Philadelphia are pushing this latest effort.

    (Source: The Tribune-Democrat)

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    Pennsylvania v. Edmiston

    Opinion Date: April 24, 2013

    Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

    Appellant Stephen Edmiston appealed the denial of relief on two separate Post-Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petitions: (1) the denial of relief raised in his second PCRA petition; and (2) the denial of his request for post-conviction DNA testing in support of his motion for petition. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the claims Appellant raised regarding the second petition were untimely. Furthermore, the Supreme Court affirmed denial of post-conviction DNA testing because Appellant failed to demonstrate that his DNA petition was made "in a timely manner and for the purpose of demonstrating [his] actual innocence and not to delay the execution of sentence or administration of justice."
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Supreme Court rejects request

    Judges suggest that convicted killer trying to delay execution

    By Phil Ray
    The Altoona Mirror

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected a request for additional DNA testing from Stephen Rex Edmiston, convicted of the 1998 murder and torture of a 2-year-old girl in Cambria County, suggesting his latest petition was only an effort to stall his execution.

    Edmiston, now 52, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the murder of Bobbi Jo Matthew, who was kidnapped from her Gulich Township, Clearfield County, home on the night of Oct. 4, 1988.

    Edmiston from Petersburg not only gave police a map that led them to the youngster's body, but when asked by police what they would find, he replied, "a dead raped little girl."

    While Edmiston might have cooperated with police to some extent during the investigation of the child's disappearance, he has in recent years declared his innocence and asked that his death sentence and conviction be tossed out because the prosecution did not provide his defense attorney with 87 black and white photographs and color slides taken by the coroner during an autopsy.

    The defense also challenged testimony by a prosecution expert witness who said blonde hairs found in Edmiston's truck matched those of the young victim.

    In 2009, Edmiston requested additional DNA tests of blood found in his truck.

    Six sitting members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week rejected Edmiston's claims for DNA testing, pointing out that prior to his trial, there was some DNA testing, including a defense report that stated the blood in the truck was from Bobbi Jo Matthew.

    DNA testing has become more sophisticated in the past 25 years, but in the majority opinion written by Justice Max Baer, the court unanimously found Edmiston's request untimely.

    It was not until after his second post-conviction petition that he sought new DNA tests, according to the state's highest court.

    "[Edmiston] has known of the existence of the physical evidence he now seeks to test since his trial over 20 years ago," the court stated.

    It said he has been represented by an attorney "who knew the statute, the technology, and the evidence and who were vigorously pursuing post-conviction relief on his behalf. ... Under such circumstances, courts should exercise a healthy skepticism when faced with requests for DNA testing," the majority opinion said.

    The judges said, "It cannot reasonably be concluded that his DNA testing motion was made in a timely manner and for the purpose of demonstrating [his] actual innocence and not to delay the execution of sentence or administration of justice."

    Justice Debra McCloskey Todd in a concurring opinion said she did not agree that the challenge to the hair evidence was untimely, noting that skepticism as to the testimony of the prosecution's hair expert came only recently after a review of forensic evidence techniques in 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences.

    Edmiston also contended that the photographs that were not given to his attorney would show the child was mutilated by a vehicle that ran over her and not because of rape and torture, as the prosecution claimed.

    Rape and torture of the child served as aggravating circumstances used by the jury to impose the death penalty.

    The Supreme Court accepted the lower court ruling that the photographs in question were mentioned repeatedly during the pretrial and trial proceedings and concluded it was once again "untimely" to bring them up as an issue 24 years after trial.

    A point made in the majority opinion as well as by Justice Todd in her concurring opinion was the evidence against Edmiston was plentiful.

    He confessed to rape and murder of the child when police had not yet found the victim's body. He drew a map and said they would find a dead, raped little girl. He admitted covering her body with branches, Todd wrote.

    There was blood in his truck, which he said came from a cut on his arm but that contention "was rebutted by prison officials who admitted [Edmiston] to prison and noted no significant cuts on his body," the court stated.

    "Given this evidence, it is not surprising [Edmiston] declined DNA testing at the time of trial ... a decision to seek further testing, of course, could have sealed [Edmiston's] fate," said the majority.

    The Edmiston case will now go to the governor's office, where a death warrant could be prepared.

    But it is unlikely he will face execution any time soon because in 2005 Edmiston's attorney asked for a federal review of his case.

    U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown stayed the federal appeal on Nov. 1, 2005, pending the outcome of the state appeal.

    Edmiston is being represented by Robert D. Dunham of the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Dunham was not available for comment Friday.

    The prosecution is represented by the Pennsylvania Attorney General. Nobody from that office was available for comment Friday.

    http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/co...id/571090.html

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Edmiston's petition for certiorari.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    I don't understand how anyone can take his claims of innocence seriously when he confessed and then told them where to find the body. I do understand that false confessions do happen. But it would seem that knowing where the body was would indicate the confession wasn't false. How else would he have known where it was?

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    Governor signs execution warrant for convicted child-killer

    Governor Tom Corbett today signed an execution warrant for Stephen Rex Edmiston, who was convicted of 1st Degree Murder for the malicious and gruesome murder of 2-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew in October of 1988.

    Edmiston is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene and his execution has been scheduled for April 16, 2014. The execution warrant signed today for Edmiston was Governor Corbett's 31st warrant signed since taking office.

    Executions in Pennsylvania are carried out by lethal injection. For more information, visit the Department of Corrections online atwww.cor.state.pa.us and select "Death Penalty" from the left-side navigation bar.

    Case Background:

    Edmiston, now 55, was sentenced to death in November 1989 by a jury in the Court of Common Pleas, Criminal Division of Cambria County.

    On the night of October 4, 1988 in Clearfield County, 2-year-old Bobbi Jo Matthew went to bed in the home she lived in with her father, Harold Matthew, her grandmother, Nancy Dotts, as well as several other children. At approximately 3:30 a.m., Harold Matthew, who was sleeping on the couch, was awakened by a man with a beard, wearing a baseball cap. The man apologized for waking him and the 2 men had a brief exchange until Matthew went back to sleep.

    Moments later, 2 of the children noticed a man with the same description enter their bedroom, walk over to where Bobbi Jo was sleeping and talk to her. He left the room, returned shortly thereafter, whispered something to Bobbi Jo and then left the room again. Several minutes later, a vehicle was seen leaving the area of the home.

    At approximately 5:30 a.m. on October 5, 1988, Nancy Dotts returned home and went to the children's room to check on them but did not see Bobbi Jo. Upon awakening Harold Matthew and the children, they all described the man in the home earlier with a beard, wearing a baseball cap, as a man fitting the description of who Dotts knew to be Edmiston, the nephew of Dotts' boyfriend.

    Police were able to track Edmiston down and arranged an interview with him. A consensual search of his pickup truck revealed blood on the seatbelt receptacle on the driver's side, blood in the middle of the bench seat, a blood-stained towel, bloody scissors and a pair of purple shorts that matched the description of the ones Bobbi Jo was wearing at the time of her disappearance.

    Edmiston eventually confessed to police that he took Bobbi Jo and drew a map of an area in Cambria County where he took her. He drew an X at an exact location on the map; when asked by police what they would specifically find when they arrived at that location, Edmiston told them they would find "a dead, raped little girl." Edmiston admitted to raping the child in his truck and then hitting her with his fist 4 or 5 times until she stopped moving.

    Police recovered the body of Bobbi Jo Matthew at the location specified on the map provided by Edmiston. Her body suffered serious injuries of scalping, blunt force to her torso, obliteration of her genital area, burning of her body, and a skull fracture. Evidence indicated that many of the injuries suffered had occurred while the child was still alive.

    (Source: Fox News)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #8
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    You mean there's actually going to be a Pennsylvania execution.
    "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."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member Frequent Poster Fact's Avatar
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    Not unless he drops his federal appeals.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Convicted killer's execution delayed

    BY KATHY MELLOTT
    The Tribune-Democrat

    JOHNSTOWN — A federal judge in Johnstown has delayed the execution of convicted child killer Stephen Rex Edmiston.

    The stay, signed by U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson, was based on information provided by Robert Dunham, the assistant public defender, that Edmiston has not exhausted all of his federal appeals.

    A week ago Gov Tom Corbett signed the warrant ordering Edmiston’s execution, which was set for April 16.

    Edmiston, now 55, was convicted by a Cambria County jury in 1989 for the 1988 murder of Bobbi Jo Matthews, 2, of Beccaria, Clearfield County.

    He abducted the child during the night on Oct. 5, 1988. Her body was found two days later in a remote area of Reade Township in northeastern Cambria County.

    The stay was not opposed by the state Attorney General’s Office which is prosecuting the case.

    http://www.tribune-democrat.com/late...cution-delayed

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