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Thread: Harold Murray IV - Pennsylvania

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    Harold Murray IV - Pennsylvania




    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in Montgomery County on May 1, 2009 for the January 31, 2005 fatal shooting of a pregnant woman, Jennifer Pennington, 30, and her unborn baby girl. The murder of Shawne Mims, 33, drew a life sentence.

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    July 25, 2009

    Convicted killer sentenced to death in Montco

    A man convicted in three 2005 gunshot slayings was sentenced to death yesterday in Montgomery County Court.

    Harold Murray 4th, 31, was convicted in April of murdering Shawne T. Mims, 33, of Norristown; Jennifer Pennington, 30, of East Norriton; and Pennington's unborn daughter on Jan. 31, 2005. Pennington had been found slain in a remote section of Fairmount Park, and a receipt in her pocket led investigators to the King of Prussia hotel room where Mims had been shot.

    Montgomery County Court Judge Steven T. O'Neill sentenced Murray to two death sentences, one life prison sentence, and one prison sentence of 42 to 84 years. Two other men accused in the slayings - said to be revenge for an earlier robbery - are set to go to trial in August. First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said Murray had not cooperated with prosecutors.

    (Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)

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    COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA V. HAROLD MURRAY, IV

    PA Death Sentence Nixed for 'Shocking' Error

    Vacating the death sentence imposed against a convicted murderer, the Pennsylvania high court called it "shocking" that jurors were told that killing an unborn child is a capital offense.

    Harold Murray IV was convicted in 2006 of three counts of first-degree murder with regard to the deaths of Shawne Mims, Jennifer Pennington and Pennington's unborn child.

    Hours before his death, Mims and an accomplice had robbed Murray and another man at gunpoint of their money, crack cocaine and cellphones. During the robbery, Pennington and another woman waited in the car. The group then checked into a hotel where they used the stolen drugs, drank tequila and had sex.

    With help from a friend, Murray and the other robbery victim tried to track down Mims and Pennington. They broke into the home of Mims' girlfriend with an AK-47 rifle, a revolver and a handgun, and eventually barricaded the woman and her children in a basement.

    Murray later learned that Pennington was at a Wawa convenience store in King of Prussia, Pa., and forced her into the vehicle with his accomplices. Surveillance video shows that Pennington was clearly pregnant at the time.

    Pennington helped her captors locate Mims at a second hotel. Murray and one of his friends found Mims naked and unarmed in his room, then shot him in the back.

    The men then drove Pennington to Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, forced her out of the car, and shot her twice in the face. Pennington died at the scene, and her unborn child did not survive the attack.

    Murray was sentenced to death for his role in the three murders, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his sentence Friday for "egregious" error.

    An experienced judge, two veteran defense attorneys and two skilled prosecutors all misinformed the sentencing jury that it could sentence Murray to death for the unborn child's murder.

    "The jury was instructed at length that the unborn child's murder was a death-eligible conviction, which aggravating and mitigating circumstances were available for consideration for that murder, and how the jury should proceed in considering the proper penalty for that murder," Justice Max Baer wrote for the court.

    Pennsylvania law, however, does not allow death penalty consideration for the murder of a fetus.

    "Respectfully, that the murder of Pennington's unborn child was submitted to the jury as a death-eligible offense is shocking and calls into question the validity of the penalty phase as a whole," Baer wrote.

    The state had argued that the error was harmless because the jury would have considered the same evidence in deciding whether to sentence Murray to death for Pennington's murder.

    But the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that capital cases must be submitted to the strictest scrutiny, according to the ruling.

    Here, "we are presented with more than a substantial risk that the jury was misinformed; all agree that the jury was, in fact, explicitly misinformed," Baer wrote. "The court charged the jury that it could return a sentence of death for the murder of Pennington's unborn child, and we cannot be certain that this erroneous instruction did not play a role in the jury's consideration of the death penalty for Pennington's murder. We find obvious that this error implicates 'the procedure by which the state imposes the death sentence,' and therefore requires a new penalty hearing."

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/12/31/64175.htm
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    Sentencing phase scheduled for convicted killer of pregnant woman

    A man convicted of first-degree murder in the killings of a man and a pregnant woman will get a new chance at a sentence in 2015.

    In December the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated the death penalty against Harold Murray’s, 36, formerly of Philadelphia, in the 2005 killings of Jennifer Pennington, Shawne Mims, and Pennington’s unborn child.

    First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said he is ready for another penalty phase as soon as possible, but the date of the sentencing phase was delayed at the defense attorney’s request.

    “He wasn’t the defense for the trial,” Steele said on Friday.

    Murray’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, helped Murray with the appeal which was successful and will most likely be court appointed to represent Murray during the sentencing phase.

    “We need time to adequately prepare this case,” Wiseman said in court on Wednesday.

    Murray’s sentence was vacated because he was incorrectly given the death penalty for killing Pennington’s unborn child, the Supreme Court ruled. In Pennsylvania a convicted killer cannot be sentenced to death for killing an unborn child, and Murray was later given life in prison on that charge.

    He appealed his death sentence in the murder of Pennington, however, contending it was too closely attached to the sentence given for the death of unborn child. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania agreed.

    Murray was convicted of three counts of first degree murder in October 2009. The Supreme Court did not overturn the convictions, nor did it vacate the sentences of life in prison for the killing of the unborn child and the murder of Mims.

    A jury will be picked and sentencing arguments will begin on Jan. 5, 2015.

    According to the affidavit of probable cause, on Jan. 31, 2005, detectives from the Philadelphia Police Department’s Homicide Division responded to the 3600 block of Ford Road in Philadelphia where they found the lifeless body of Jennifer Pennington. Investigators discovered a receipt for a hotel in King of Prussia under the name Shawne Mims in her pocket. Investigators later found Mims dead in the hotel.

    An autopsy later revealed that Pennington, who was six-months pregnant at the time, was killed from two gunshot wounds to the face. Another autopsy was performed on Mims, who also died from two gunshot wounds. One hit him in the arm before entering his chest and resting in his right lung, and the other entered into his back.

    The shootings resulted in a joint investigation between the Upper Merion Township Police Department, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau.

    According to court documents, investigators discovered that Mims and a friend had planned to rob a drug dealer. Later on Jan. 30, 2005, Mims and two others picked up Pennington from Norristown. Pennington called a woman she knew to arrange a drug deal. During the ride to meet the drug dealer, Mims told Pennington they intended to rob the drug dealer. Pennington and another woman remained in the car when Mims and another male left to rob the drug dealer.

    Mims and his friend took a gray sweatshirt, cash, cocaine and three cell phones from two men during the robbery. They then went to the Motel 6 in King of Prussia to use the drugs.

    Investigators later learned Murray and another person went to Mims’ girlfriend’s home and asked where he was. Murray told her he was going to kill Mims because he robbed him of drugs and $3,000. The two men tied up the victim’s children while they searched the home. She was told not to call police because they would be staking out her home and would know if she did.

    Through a series of interviews and photo line-ups, investigators were able to identify Murray as the man who entered the house and threatened to kill Mims and Pennington.

    http://www.timesherald.com/general-n...pregnant-woman
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    Convicted Upper Merion killer remains on death row as attorneys debate jurisdiction

    By Dan Clark
    The Times Herald

    COURTHOUSE -- The man whose death sentence was overturned for the 2005 killing of Jennifer Pennington in Upper Merion will remain on death row, for now.

    On Thursday Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven O’Neill ordered Harold Murray’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, and attorneys from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to file additional briefs to determine whether or not O’Neill has the jurisdiction or authority to take Murray, 37, off of death row while he waits for a new sentencing phase.

    While those briefs are filed, Murray will stay on death row in State Correctional Institute Graterford.

    In court, Wiseman argued that his client is living on death row without a death sentence, which violates his constitutional rights because he is unable to participate in group programs that could be used to show jurors that he would behave well as a prisoner in general population for the rest of his life. Wiseman said that could be used as mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase. Right now, Murray, is serving two life sentences ― one for the death of Shawne Mims and one for the killing of Pennington’s unborn child.

    Wiseman asked if the Department of Corrections could conduct an individual assessment to see if Murray would be able to live in general population without a problem. If the department made such an assessment and found Murray would not be suitable for general population, there would be nothing more to say, he added.

    Murray was initially given a death sentence in 2009 for the killings of Pennington’s unborn child. However, Pennsylvania law does not allow for jurors to sentence a defendant to death for the killing of an unborn child. The courts realized the error and reversed it, giving him a life sentence.

    In January 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the death penalty imposed for the death of Pennington, saying it was too closely connected to the jury’s decision to sentence Murray to death for the killing of her unborn child, and sent the case back to Common Pleas Court for resentencing.

    Julia Tilghman, an attorney for the Department of Corrections, argued that it is not in Judge O’Neill’s jurisdiction to rule on how the prisons house inmates. She said it is the practice of the department to keep defendants sentenced to death on death row through the course of their appeals and through their retrials. She also argued it is not the job of the Department of Corrections to help the defendant create mitigating factors for sentencing.

    On Jan. 31, 2005, detectives from the Philadelphia Police Department’s Homicide Division responded to the 3600 block of Ford Road in Philadelphia for a report that a human body had been found on the side of the road. The victim was later identified as Pennington. Investigators found a receipt for a room at the Best Western Hotel in King of Prussia with Mims’ name on it.

    Investigators went to the Best Western room to find Mims dead from two gunshot wounds.

    According to the affidavit of probable cause, an autopsy performed on Pennington showed she was pregnant and had died from two gunshot wounds in the face. The autopsy performed showed that Mims had been killed from two separate gunshot wounds, one to in his chest, hitting the lung, and the other going through his back.

    On Jan. 31, 2005, police learned that Mims and Pennington were a part of a group that robbed two drug dealers on Jan. 30, 2005. Court documents cite revenge as the motive for the killings. Murray was found guilty in April 2009 and sentenced to death for the murder of Pennington and her unborn child and to life in prison for the murder of Mims.

    The new sentencing phase in which a jury will determine whether Murray will be sentenced to life in prison or death for the killing of Pennington has not been scheduled. A status hearing in the case has been scheduled for September.

    http://www.timesherald.com/general-n...e-jurisdiction

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    Resentenced to life.

    If someone could post the link it would appreciated. I can't access it as I'm in the EU.

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...6OcD6eYImvWLs2

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    Man draws life sentence in 2005 slaying of pregnant Montco woman

    By Carl Hessler Jr.
    The Mercury

    NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man whose death sentence was overturned by a state court showed no emotion as he learned he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars for the 2005 gunshot slayings of a pregnant East Norriton woman and another man in Upper Merion.

    “This was a planned, premeditated execution of other human beings, pure and simple,” Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill said on Thursday as he re-sentenced Harold “Sleep” Murray IV to life imprisonment without parole in connection with the Jan. 30, 2005, murder of Jennifer Pennington. “Any lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crimes the defendant was convicted of by a jury.

    “Total confinement is warranted in this case. I believe there is an undue risk that the defendant would commit another crime,” O’Neill added.

    In the courtroom, Murray, now 42, said “on the advice of my attorney” he would not make a statement before learning his fate. Murray expressed no remorse as Pennington’s relatives, still wrought with grief 15 years after the killing, were seated in the front row of the courtroom.

    But later, as he was led from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies, Murray lashed out at the judge and prosecutors and called detectives “corrupt and crooked” and stated, “I ain’t (sic) kill nobody. It was an illegal sentence.”

    After a trial in April 2009, a jury convicted Murray, then 31, of charges of first-degree murder and murder of an unborn child in connection with the deaths of Pennington, 30, of East Norriton, who was six months pregnant, and Shawne T. Mims, 33, of Norristown.

    Murray subsequently was sentenced to death by lethal injection for Pennington’s murder and the death of her unborn child and a consecutive life sentence for the death of Mims. The death sentence imposed against Murray for the unborn child’s murder later was vacated and he was sentenced to a life prison term for that crime.

    However, in December 2013, while the state Supreme Court upheld Murray’s convictions, it overturned the death penalty imposed against Murray for the death of Pennington, saying it was too closely connected to the jury’s decision to sentence Murray to death of the killing of her unborn child, and sent the case back to county court for a resentencing hearing on that single count of first-degree murder.

    Under state law, first-degree murder is punishable by either the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole.

    But Murray, through his lawyers, argued for a sentence that would allow Murray the chance for parole one day. The lawyers argued a sentence that doesn’t include parole violates a defendant’s right to “individualized sentencing.”

    “There is only one sentence that is possible under the law, a life sentence without parole,” county District Attorney Kevin R. Steele countered on Thursday. “This was one of the most heinous crimes that I’ve seen in my career.”

    Steele, who was assisted by Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick, said after the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty for Pennington’s murder, prosecutors consulted with Pennington’s family before opting not to seek the death penalty a second time during the re-sentencing hearing.

    Steele explained that with the previously imposed consecutive life prison terms for the murders of Pennington’s unborn child and of Mims, and a consecutive 42 to 84 years in prison on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and burglary, that a life sentence for Pennington’s murder “would be the best result at this point.”

    “They’ve gone through almost 15 years of this at this point and they felt that they wanted some closure in this…,” explained Steele, referring to Pennington’s family. “The bottom line is, he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

    During emotional testimony, Pennington’s sister, Melissa, confronted Murray in court and explained family members chose to “default to a life sentence” for Murray “to spare ourselves from an even more painful experience of having to re-live hearing the details of how you brutally murdered by sister, Jenny, and her unborn child, my niece, whom we’ve named Destiny.”

    Family members made clear they wanted to avoid having to endure other appeals by Murray if he was resentenced to death again.

    “The time has come to finally put an end to all of this, to put a stop to your charade of appeals,” Pennington’s sister, who was 21 when Jennifer was murdered, addressed Murray. “You will no longer be able to look forward to prison to prison transports and field trips to the courthouse. Today, your fate will be sealed and you will spend the rest of your days behind bars.”

    Pennington’s sister said the impact of Pennington’s death “will be felt for a lifetime.”

    “No one should have to live with the pain and suffering that you have left us with,” she addressed Murray.

    The investigation began about 4:25 a.m. Jan. 31, 2005, when detectives from the Philadelphia Police Department responded to the 3600 block of Ford Road in Philadelphia for a report that a human body had been found on the side of the road. The victim was later identified as Pennington. Investigators found a receipt for a room at the Best Western Hotel in King of Prussia with Mims’ name on it, according to testimony.

    Investigators went to the Best Western room and found Mims dead from two gunshot wounds.

    The shootings resulted in a joint investigation between the Upper Merion Township Police Department, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Montgomery County Detective Bureau.

    An autopsy performed on Pennington determined she was pregnant and had died from two gunshot wounds to the face. An autopsy determined Mims sustained two separate gunshot wounds, one to in his chest and one to his upper back.

    Detectives subsequently learned that Mims and Pennington allegedly were part of a group that robbed two drug dealers on Jan. 30, 2005.

    According to court documents, investigators discovered that Mims and a friend had planned to rob drug dealers. Later on Jan. 30, 2005, Mims and two others picked up Pennington in Norristown and Pennington called a woman she knew to arrange a drug deal.

    During the ride to meet the drug dealers, Mims told Pennington they intended to rob the drug dealers. Pennington and another woman remained in the car while Mims and another male left to rob two drug dealers of money, drugs and cellphones, according to court papers. Murray was one of the victims of the robbery, detectives alleged.

    Detectives alleged Murray and another man eventually located Mims and Pennington at the Best Western in Upper Merion and fatally shot Mims there and kidnapped and killed Pennington before dumping her body in Philadelphia.

    A second man, Ernest Reginald Morris, then 24, of Philadelphia, also was convicted of murder charges and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the crimes.

    Court documents cite revenge as the motive for the killings of Mims and Pennington.

    https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/man-d...f308d9d90.html
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