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For nearly an hour, Allegheny County homicide detectives pleaded with Douglas Berry to tell them where the body was.
It had been 25 days since 67-year-old Elizabeth “Betsy” Wiesenfeld had gone missing, and weeks of investigation had pointed the detectives directly at Berry, a handyman who had worked for her.
Video from Wiesenfeld’s Whitehall neighborhood showed Berry’s distinctive pickup truck in her driveway on the morning she went missing, the investigators told him.
They found her debit card albeit burned at Berry’s house in Liberty.
Nine candidates seek three vacant seats on the Lehigh County bench
Today 6:30 AM
Candidates for Lehigh County judge in the May 2021 primary election. From left to right, top row: Tom Caffrey, Tom Capehart, Zac Cohen. Middle row: Eman H. Jarrah, Patricia Fuentes Mulqueen, David Ritter. Bottom row: Carlos Rodriguez, Rashid Santiago, Maraleen Shields.Courtesy photos
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Voters will have nine candidates from whom to choose the next three judges in Lehigh County.
Each of the candidates has cross-filed to run as a Republican and as a Democrat for the seats. The top three vote-getters on each ballot will appear on the general election ballot in November.
Cherokee Nation
reservation and that the victims were enrolled members of the Cherokee tribe.
Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court had voided the conviction of
Muscogee (Creek) citizen,
Patrick Murphy for murders that had occurred within the historical borders of the Creek Reservation. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals also voided the conviction of Shaun Bosse for murders of members of the
Chickasaw Nation within the borders of the Chickasaw Reservation.
NEWS (4/29/21) California: The California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence imposed on
Maurice Steskal in his resentencing trial, unanimously rejecting his argument that the execution of severely mentally ill individuals constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Steskal had contended that the evolving standards of decency in the United States no longer found it acceptable to execute those who are severely mentally ill.
Allegheny County President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark knows the covid-19 pandemic isn’t over.
But with case counts dropping, and vaccinations increasing, she said Thursday, it’s time to resume criminal jury trials.
“I just feel that we have to move forward,” Clark said. “We keep waiting for the perfect time, and there is no perfect time.
“Meanwhile, people are sitting in jail.”
Jury trials in the criminal division will resume on Monday, with selection scheduled to take place at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center the same as happened in the fall before covid cases started to spike.
Before trials were halted in October, Clark said, three juries were picked there. One of them resulted in an acquittal.
Paula Reed Ward
Tribune-Review
A memorial to Pittsburgh firefighters Marc Kolenda, Patricia Conroy and Capt. Thomas Brooks sits at the base of a flagpole outside of Engine 17 in Homewood, shown here in December 2015.
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A federal appellate court said Tuesday that prosecutors can retry a man whose conviction in the 1995 deaths of three firefighters in the East Hills was overturned.
In a 19-page opinion, the three judge-panel from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the federal retrial of Gregory Brown Jr., on a single charge of malicious destruction of property by fire resulting in death, does not violate his double jeopardy rights.