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Appeals remain for killer of three, despite recent signing of death warrant
Although Gov. Edward G. Rendell recently signed a death warrant for Roland William Steele, it's likely he will remain alive for years to come.
Steele, 62, was convicted in January 1986 of three counts of first-degree murder in the karate-style killings of 88-year-old Lucille Horner, 86-year-old Minnie Warrick and 85-year-old Sarah Knutz. The women, all of East Washington, were leaving a charity luncheon at the former Club International in the Millcraft Center in Washington June 21, 1985, when Steele conned them into letting him drive their car.
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However, Steele has sat inside the State Correctional Institution at Greene in Waynesburg for more than 20 years.
Last week, Rendell set Steele's execution by lethal injection for June 18.
But just because Steele's execution has been approved and scheduled doesn't mean he will be put to death any time soon.
Steele has not fully exhausted his appeal options. He has not even begun seeking intervention by the federal courts, and he still has a post-conviction relief appeal lingering in the county.
In February, attorney Matthew Lawry of the Defender Association of Philadelphia claimed Steele has documented IQ scores of 73 and 75, which are in the mentally disabled range, making him ineligible for the death penalty.
Both defense and prosecuting attorneys have filed their arguments with Senior Washington County Judge John F. Bell. Bell has yet to set a formal hearing date or make any decision regarding the case.
Previous appeals by Steele have been dismissed by the county courts and the state's Superior and Supreme courts.
A 1999 execution warrant issued by then-Gov. Tom Ridge was stayed by the Washington County Court of Common Pleas pending the outcome of a petition for post-conviction relief. The lower court denied post-conviction relief, and the state Supreme Court affirmed that judgment in December 2008 and denied reargument in March 2009, which lifted the stay of execution.
Steele now can seek another stay that would allow him to further his appeal process, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
Usually, a death warrant is not signed until all appeals are exhausted.
Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo downplayed the governor's signing of the warrant with the pending appeal.
"The governor has no choice but to sign a warrant once it's on his desk," Ardo said. "Whatever appeals may follow don't interfere with the signing. The court will give him ample opportunity to further appeals, and a stay is virtually assured."
Normally, when a death warrant is signed and an execution date is set, the condemned person is moved from his or her death row cell to a death watch cell, which is typically adjacent to the execution chamber.
The state Department of Corrections or the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, in federal cases, has limited time, normally about 60 days, from the date the warrant is signed to complete the execution process. If that time elapses, the condemned person is returned to the death row cell, where the inmate awaits another execution date.
The governor, an appeals court, a state or federal Supreme Court, or, in federal death penalty cases, the president, may grant a stay of execution at any time, even when the condemned is being prepared for execution.
The last person to be executed in Pennsylvania was Gary Michael Heidnik, on July 6, 1999.
Steele is one of the state's 86 death row inmates, and one of two from Washington County.
Convicted and sentenced to die in 2000, Michelle Tharp, formerly of Burgettstown, awaits execution for starving her 7-year-old daughter, Tausha Lanham, to death. Thomas Gorby, formerly of Eighty Four and convicted in 1986 in the death of Drayton Spahr, is awaiting a new sentencing hearing.
William "Tippy" Wallace is listed on the state Department of Corrections Web site as a death row inmate for the 1979 deaths of Tina Spalla and Carl Luisi, both of Canonsburg. His name remains on the list even though the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, overturning Wallace's death sentence for Spalla's killing but affirming his life imprisonment for the Luisi murder. The listing is considered an administrative matter, and Wallace continues to be confined to SCI-Greene.
The only death row inmate from Greene County is Jeffrey Martin, sentenced in September for the death of 12-year-old Gabrielle Bechen.
Washington County District Attorney Steven M. Toprani said he is seeking the death penalty in five upcoming homicide cases he will prosecute.
Death Penalty : 4/26/2009
This is what is wrong with the death penalty. The scum are permitted to sit on death row, watching cable television, being fed three times a day, going out to play with the other scum every day, and they get to drag this procedure out for decades. Once convicted, they receive an automatic appeal to the state supreme court, and to the federal supreme court. After these two courts check the conviction and determine that everything was done according to the law, execute the scum. This antiquated appeal process has got to go. With cases like this one, there is no doubt of innocence, and with the DNA evidence of today, appeals are just a waste of time and money. Anti death penalty persons say that it is not a deterrent, it never was intended to deter anyone, it just rids the society of another wasted piece of scum so they can harm no one else.
Roland Steele still alive, why?? : 4/26/2009
The PA dealth penalty is useless. How can one still be alive after almost 3 decades after being convicted of killing 3 defenseless women? Who pays for endless appeals by attorneys? It is us! Spending milliions and millions for attorneys to represent these scum bags. Attorneys who make a great living, just doing this. There is something very wrong with our current legal system. Should be a dead line. Convicted and sentenced to death. Ok, dealth sentence carried out in 8 yrs. end of story. Otherwise, we will continue to spend millions and millions of our taxpayer dollars...for what?
do you ever get your facts right : 5/2/2009
i swear your news paper always have their facts wrong. do you make things up as you go????
