DA seeks review of decision overturning 1998 conviction
ERIE (AP) – A prosecutor says he plans to seek a review of an appeals court decision overturning the conviction of a New York man in a Pennsylvania shooting death more than two decades ago.
Vance Haskell of Rochester was convicted in 1998 of first-degree murder in northwestern Pennsylvania’s Erie County in the December 1994 slaying of 24-year-old Darrel Cooley.
Haskell’s attorney argued before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that although a witness told jurors she got nothing for testifying, prosecutors helped her get probation in an unrelated theft case in another county.
District Attorney Jack Danieri told the Erie Times-News that he will ask the full 3rd Circuit to reconsider the three-judge panel’s decision. He said if the decision is upheld, one option is retrying the now-48-year-old defendant.